Synthetic Emotions
by Saro
Summary: discontinued AU. Kagome reactivates a youkai that's been in storage for 50 years, only to find that it's hard to define life when machines can think and feel. Scifi
1. Digital Sleep

A/N: 02-01-04.  I'm revising and reformatting the chapters, and should be posting the next new one soon.  No major changes, just getting rid of the typos and grammar problems.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.  
  
**Synthetic Emotions**

Chapter One: Digital Sleep

  
  
No one had laid foot in the apartment for something like fifty years. Opening the door, Kagome felt as though she'd stepped into some kind of tomb or mausoleum. The living room was a mess: a coffee table with an out of date news paper lying dissected on its top, partially draped furniture covered with the disorganized flotsam and jetsam of some person's life, all blanketed with a liberal accumulation of dust. Cobweb tapestries hung from the corners. The air was thick, stagnant with half a century of disuse. Kaede had said she was welcome to anything she found in here, but Kagome was certain she'd have to get rid of everything or she'd have nightmares. It wasn't that it was scary, really, just disturbing.  
  
"Creepy," Shippo opined, surveying the room from behind the girl's legs.  
  
Kagome picked him up and ran a comforting hand over the little youkai's soft tail. She preferred not to think of what her friends would say if they saw her trying to offer comfort a machine. They teased her enough for still having a child's toy. Most of them had more mature models, made to look like males in their early twenties, and programmed to serve their adult masters accordingly. Shippo, on the other hand, looked like a cross between a little boy and a toy fox, with his fluffy tail and vulpine feet; and he was programmed with an attitude that was such a mix of bravado and cowardice that no ten-year-old girl could resist him. Kagome always said that she kept him out of sentimentality. How could she explain to her friends that it would feel wrong getting rid of him because he'd understand what was going on? At least, how could she explain it and not have them think she was irrational?  
  
"Yeah, definitely creepy," she agreed, and tried not to think about what her friends would say.  
  
"Why'd they leave all this junk down here anyway?" Shippo asked, voice quavering.  
  
"Kaede said it was all her sister's. She said that she just closed up the apartment after she died," Kagome explained.  
  
"But. . .she didn't die _here_, did she?"  
  
"No, she didn't," the girl assured him. "Her family just left all her stuff here. They didn't want to have to sort through it, I suppose." Kagome could sympathize. When her father had died, her family had been forced to go through all the things he'd left at home and in his office. Every time they'd found something they had to throw out, they had all started crying again. She could only imagine how hard it would be to have to go through an entire home that way. _That's probably why the old woman is letting us go through it now, instead of cleaning it out herself_, Kagome thought sadly. As she looked around, she discovered she didn't even know where to begin.  
  
*~*~*  
  
The apartment wasn't nearly so oppressive once Kagome opened all the windows and drapes, letting light and air into spaces that had been still for decades. Actually, the job was far less depressing than she had been steeling herself to expect. There were surprisingly few of the mementos and cherished tokens that one accumulates during their life. Almost nothing stood out as a personal touch. Even the small collection of blown glass animals on the kitchen shelf didn't really seem to retain much of the previous occupant's personality. Kagome had found only one family photo so far, and that was a sit-down portrait in a small frame on the nightstand. There were no instamatic pictures of friends, nor childhood teddy bears, or even a phone message scrawled on the envelope from the electric bill. Whoever Kaede's sister had been, Kagome had more keepsakes in her room that the woman had kept in her entire house.  
  
_Who was this person?_ the girl found herself wondering as she poked through the dead woman's wardrobe. The clothing inside was all very unassuming. No short dresses. No bright colors. No sequins, or messages, or anything. A bit of lace trim on the collar of a work blouse was about as flamboyant as it got. Kagome was beginning to expect to find a leather corset and set of whips—no one was actually this proper.  
  
"Kagome!" Shippo's voice called. The girl sighed and shook her head. There was nothing here that couldn't wait. Maybe Shippo had found something interesting.  
  
He was waiting for her in front of a white sliding door off the dining room, looking up at a numberlock in obvious irritation. Well, and obvious display of irritation, anyway. He was a machine, Kagome reminded herself, designed to simulate human emotion, but not actually have them.  
  
"What is it, Shippo?" Kagome asked.  
  
"Did Kaede give you the code for this door?"  
  
"Just a second, let me check," she told him, already searching through her pockets for the scrap of paper the old woman had given her. "Ah, here it is."  
  
The piece of paper had three different combinations on it. 'Oh well, only one way to find out,' Kagome said to herself, and tried the first one.  
  
4-3-4-7. . .beeb beeb beep! Kagome cringed away from the number panel's "You Did a Bad Thing" noise. Shippo covered his pointed ears and shot her an accusing look.  
  
Guess that wasn't it. Two more to try.  
  
7-8-1-3. . . bleep beep! The lock made its "Good" noise, and the white door slid open with a quiet hiss. Immediately, Shippo darted inside, expressing his synthetic joy with childish sounds of delight. Kagome shrugged, shoving the paper back in her pocket, and followed him.  
  
"Well, what is it?" she asked, and turned on the light to find herself looking a sleeping boy. A boy who slept standing up, who had beautiful, glossy white hair falling all the way to his hips, and who possessed a pair of very soft looking, very adorable dog-ears perched on the top of his head.  
  
"It appears to be a youkai storage unit," Shippo said, looking up at Kagome with big turquoise eyes.  
  
"I can see that," Kagome said wryly, returning her attention to the boy. He didn't look like a standard model. For one, he was the wrong age. He looked like he was in his late teens, which was a few years younger than most women would want, and probably not something most parents would approve of their teenage daughters having. Also, the quality was too high. He had to have been in storage for at least fifty years, but he looked more real than Shippo, who was only twelve years old. His skin didn't have a matte shine. It looked like skin. His hair looked like hair, not nylon. A lot of new youkai didn't look so human. He must have cost a fortune. Kagome noticed that she was chewing on her lower lip, and forced herself to stop. "Do you think he still works?"  
  
Shippo thought. "He should have a perpetual battery," he told her after a moment. "Theoretically, you should be able to turn him on right now."  
  
"Theoretically?"  
  
"Well, there could be a problem with his hardware after all this time, or he might have had something wrong with his to start with," he said defensively. "I don't know why he was turned off in the first place."  
  
"He looks pretty top of the line," Kagome remarked. "I bet he still works. Help me figure out how to reactivate him."  
  
Shippo didn't seem too enthusiastic about the idea, but Kagome ignored him_. Maybe there is something in this apartment worth keeping_, she thought, running her hands through the hair under his ears looking for a switch. She couldn't stop herself from rubbing one triangular ear to see if it was as soft as it looked. It felt like a dog's ear. His skin felt like skin, cool and smooth, but real. She continued to search until she started running out of ideas for where to look, by which time she had developed a great deal of respect for this youkai's maker. She could hardly believe he wasn't brand new. And she was getting frustrated. He didn't seem to have any switches, or buttons, or knobs, or anything.  
  
"I can check my data base," Shippo offered helpfully while Kagome was wondering if she should start stripping the youkai.  
  
She blinked, then turned to look at the little fox. "Why didn't you do that in the first place?" she asked, annoyed.  
  
"I didn't think of it."  
  
"What kind of excuse is that for a robot?"  
  
"I am not a robot!" Shippo protested. "Do you want me to or not?"  
  
"Please," Kagome said, and waited while Shippo's eyes took on a far away look.  
  
After about forty-five seconds, he was back, and he looked nervous.  
  
"Ah, Kagome, maybe we shouldn't turn him on," he suggested, shifting his weight uncomfortably.  
  
"What?" Kagome asked. "Why not?"  
  
"Um… because… I think he might be a hanyou prototype," the little youkai explained reluctantly.  
  
"A what?" the girl demanded. "Why shouldn't we wake him up?"  
  
"About sixty years ago a bunch of companies tried to make youkai that were more human, so they turned out all these hanyou, but they were really unstable." Shippo was doing his scared routine, glancing about nervously and fidgeting as though a bogeyman would come and get him. "Most of them were recalled."  
  
If he was hoping his explanation would deter her, he was sadly mistaken. Shippo's story only made her want to see if he still worked even more. Trying to make humanesque youkai, huh? What exactly did that mean?  
  
"So how do we turn a hanyou on?" Kagome asked.  
  
Shippo sighed in defeat. "He should have a door in his chest. The controls are internal."  
  
"Thanks, Shippo," Kagome said happily, attacking the buttons on the dormant hanyou's shirt to reveal a smooth, artistically made chest. Whoever had made this guy, had made him the image of late adolescent perfection, with slender, well-defined muscles visible under his convincingly real skin. "Wait, I don't see a door."  
  
"It's hidden," Shippo explained. "His skin is synthetic, but it's real. Like the stuff they use for prosthetics and on burn victims. It's one of his 'human' features. You need to pull away the skin to find the door. There should be a tab or something."  
  
"I need to what?" Kagome studied the hanyou's chest skeptically. Pull a 'tab' on his chest? Shippo had to be teasing her.  
  
"There, on his ribs," Shippo continued, ignoring Kagome's distress. Why was she worried any way? _This is a machine_, she scolded herself firmly, and looked at his ribs.  
  
Across his ribs, under his left arm, was what looked like a small scar. Kagome blinked. That? Experimentally, she tugged at the scar with her fingertips. The scar pulled up slightly under the gentle motion. Emboldened, the girl pinched the edge between her fingers and pulled back a layer of flesh about an inch thick. The seams parted with some resistance, but not enough to worry her. She watched, morbidly fascinated, as the youkai's epidermis peeled back to reveal shiny artificial muscles, and a metal door where his breastbone would have been if he were human.  
  
"Found it," Kagome said happily. The door opened on a pressure catch, and inside were a number of switches, as well as some wires and a few connections. "Which one is the power button?"  
  
"Are you sure you want to do this Kagome?" Shippo asked, uneasy again. When she didn't respond, he continued. "There should be two green switches right next to each other. Pull them both forward, then push them down and left."  
  
Kagome found the switches, currently the in down and right position. She could not help but be excited at she first pulled, and then pushed them. Curiosity had always been one of her biggest faults—she preferred to think of it as a virtue, because that way it wasn't a problem.  
  
But nothing happened.  
  
"Maybe he's broken?" Shippo suggested, relieved.  
  
"Huh," Kagome agreed, still examining the switches and connections carefully. Maybe he was broken, or maybe Shippo was missing something. She experimented with a few of the other toggles, and moved the wires gingerly.  
  
"We could go get Kaede."  
  
Kagome continued to ignore her youkai, checking the settings, which she really didn't know how were supposed to be set, until she came to a wire that ended in a dangling male plug. It didn't look like it was particularly important, but it was worth a try. After a little more hunting, she found the only female piece it could reach. The two plugs were the same shade of light blue, which she took as a good sign. She pushed them together.  
  
The hanyou jerked, as though he'd been shocked.  
  
"Get your dirty hands out of me," gritted a rusty voice over Kagome's shoulder.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Go ahead and laugh at the "Turning a hanyou on," bit. I did.  
  
This is a little different for me. I've never actually written anything that even resembles Sci-fi before. Questions? Comments? Whatever, I'd like to hear them. Thanks for reading.


	2. Simulated Anger

A/N: Thank you for the lovely reviews! Only five so far, but hey, I didn't really expect any. Happy me. I wrote the first chapter because a friend of mine asked me to write something I was inhibited to write. The thing was, I couldn't think of anything I was reluctant to write about, until I realized that I was terrified of writing Sci-fi. I don't know a damn thing about science, or computers, or any of the other Sci-fi staples. Then I got this idea, and went with it. Since a few people seemed to like it, I decided to keep going, and here I am now.  
  
Disclaimer: I still don't own Inuyasha.  
  
**Synthetic Emotions**

Chapter Two: Simulated Anger

  
  
Kagome pulled her hands away from the youkai, and found herself looking up into blank amber eyes. The expression on his face was one she'd never seen on a machine before—if she didn't know it was impossible, she would have called it betrayal. Anger and hurt drew the boy's brows down, and the corners of his mouth were pulled into an almost pained snarl. If not for the dead eyes, she would have believed he was actually feeling it. But why would anyone program a youkai (or a hanyou) to simulate anger?  
  
"You've got a lot of nerve, I'll give you that," the gritty voice continued. "Waking me up after more than fifty goddamned years. What the hell did I do to deserve that, Kikyo?"  
  
"Who?" Kagome asked, backing away slowly. "Who's Kikyo?"  
  
"Don't play games with me!" the boy yelled. "I know you're there, bitch. I can smell you."  
  
Shippo was trembling against Kagome's leg. Kagome was trembling, herself. This youkai was starting to scare her. Weren't these things supposed to have fail-safes and innate commands that kept them from being violent? Maybe, fifty years ago they didn't. Or maybe hanyou prototypes didn't. "I'm not Kikyo!" she cried, a little hysterically. "How can I be, if she shut you off fifty-odd years ago?"  
  
"Kagome," Shippo said, gulping. "I think you turned off his optics when you were fiddling around in there."  
  
"Fiddling around," the hanyou snorted, then proceeded to curse fluently, leaving Kagome only more baffled. "Fiddle-lee-fucking around! What the hell did you think you were doing?"  
  
"I was trying to turn you back on, you ingrate," the girl muttered defensively. The dog-ears twitched toward her words, but the rest of the boy seemed to ignore her as he reached inside his own chest and began righting whatever it was she had upset when she was trying to start him up again. His lack of attention did not stop him from giving vent to his frustration though. He mumbled and cursed, and accused her of 'never knowing a damn thing about machines.'  
  
"I'm trying to tell you, I'm not her," Kagome said again, and this time her claim was answered with a grunted 'Keh.' She swallowed hard, suddenly wondering how she was going to get out of this.  
  
After a moment of adjusting and readjusting, the boy seemed satisfied. He closed the metal door of his sternum, and smoothed his skin back over muscles made out of polymer. The skin slid back into place seamlessly. When he finished, only the small scar along his ribs remained. Finally he blinked, and his dark yellow eyes came into focus. The look in them matched the rest of his expression, which turned from anger, to confusion, to suspicion when he looked at her.  
  
"You're not Kikyo," he said, almost accusingly.  
  
"That's what she's been saying," Shippo shouted from his relative safety huddled behind his master. "If you listened, instead of mouthing off like an idiot, you would've known that."  
  
The boy's gaze landed on Kagome, and she felt her insides turn liquid at the threat written on his face. In a low, barely audible voice, he asked, "Where is Kikyo?"  
  
"I don't know," the girl told him, her own voice hardly more than a whisper.  
  
Faster than the eye could follow, the boy closed the distance between them. His clawed hand wrapped around her throat, and suddenly Kagome hit the wall behind her. Her head struck the sheet rock with a sharp crack, and lights danced through her vision. She gasped, fighting for breath, and found that she couldn't draw enough air into her lungs. The pressure on her windpipe increased, and black dots joined the lights swirling before her. Kagome coughed and choked, tears burning her cheeks.  
  
"I'll ask you one more time, bitch. Where is Kikyo?" the strange youkai growled, his nose inches away from hers.  
  
"Get away from her!" Shippo screamed.  
  
"Shippo, no," Kagome told him, or tried to. Her words came out as a croak. He didn't listen, anyway. All youkai had the same final default programming: The life of a human master came before the self-preservation of an automaton. Even if the youkai wasn't designed to fight, like Shippo. The little fox-doll didn't stand a chance against something like this boy.  
  
Shippo threw himself at the white haired boy, baring minuscule toy fangs, and bit down hard on one soft dog-ear.  
  
"Shit," the youkai hissed, and swatted at the fox child with his free hand. It connected, and Shippo sailed through the air. Kagome tried to see where he landed, but she couldn't turn her head. She might not have been able to see him, even if she could; the edges of her vision were turning black and receding. She gasped, struggling for oxygen. "Kikyo?"  
  
"Kikyo. . ." Kagome tried to think, but she couldn't even form a coherent prayer. Her mind went blank but for the knowledge that she did not want to die. "Kikyo is Kaede's… sister… right?"  
  
The grip on her neck lessened fractionally. Enough for her to breath, but not enough to move. "That's a start," the boy said sardonically. "Now where is she?"  
  
"She…" the girl's courage faltered. _He's going to kill me_, her mind screamed. She squeezed her eyes shut. He was definitely going to kill her if she didn't say anything. "She's dead."  
  
Kagome waited for the pressure on her windpipe to return, slowly forcing her out of reality; or for a blow, to end it all quickly. Neither came. After a long, frozen instant, the hand holding her abruptly disappeared.  
  
Relief flooded her body, and she slid down the wall to the floor. She was alive! For a moment, all she could do was assimilate that one beautiful fact. Then she became aware of her sore throat, and the reason for it still standing not a yard away from her. She rubbed what were sure to be ugly bruises, and looked up at the boy, who no longer seemed concerned with her at all. His face was a mask, unnaturally calm and still. His attention seemed focused inward.  
  
"You mentioned Kaede," he said, not looking at her. "What does she have to do with this?"  
  
"She's my landlady. She owns the lease on this building," Kagome explained. His ears shifted. That was the only sign he heard her. A little braver, she pressed on. "I'm renting this apartment.  I was just cleaning out the stuff left over from the…last… I mean, Kikyo's stuff. It's all been sealed since she died. I suppose you've been in here the whole time?"  
  
"Fifty-three years, four months, twelve days." His eyes slid shut, and his face grew lax, as though he were sad. "Six hours and forty seven minutes."  
  
"How do you know that?" Kagome asked, bewildered by mood swings from a youkai.  
  
The boy's eyes flew open, and his expression settled into one of annoyance. "I do have an internal clock, you know."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"So does Kaede own all of this?" He crossed his arms over his chest and looked away from her. For the moment, Kagome was willing to accept indifference as an improvement over homicidal intent.  
  
"Yeah," she told him, hoping it was the right answer.  
  
He sighed. Could machines sigh? If not, someone had failed to inform this one. "I guess we go talk to Kaede then."  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kagome gathered Shippo, who was dazed and now in need of repair, but more or less intact. The youkai waited for her, standing in the open front door. The sunlight did not find any flaws in his illusion of life that artificial light had hidden. Even in the bright afternoon sun he looked nothing less than alive and 'real.' If it weren't for his inhuman features—dog-ears, slit pupilled gold eyes, clawed fingers and ivory hair—he would have been in violation of the Replica Act, which forbade youkai manufacturers from making realistic humanlike androids.  
  
He grew impatient when Kagome started doting on her broken youkai. He shouldn't have been impatient, couldn't be really, but Kagome was already growing used to this hanyou doing things regular youkai ought not to. She picked up Shippo and followed the boy out the door.  
  
"I'm Kagome, by the way," the girl said when the silence became too uncomfortable.  
  
"And I care, why?" the boy asked, shooting a bemused glace over his shoulder.  
  
_Jeez, whoever designed his emotion simulations went a little over board_, Kagome thought, meeting his condescending gaze. "Well," she said aloud, "if you know my name you can stop calling me 'bitch.'"  
  
"Keh," he grunted, which Kagome took to mean that her last statement wasn't even worth a response.  
  
"Hey, you don't have to be so rude about it," she snapped, then shut up when annoyance returned to the boy's distinct features. She resisted the urge to smack herself in the head. "I must be crazy," she muttered under her breath, "this guy just tried to kill me, and I'm picking a fight with him."  
  
"Inuyasha," the boy said without warning as they neared Kaede's apartment.  
  
"What?"  
  
"My name is Inuyasha, bitch," he told her arrogantly. "And if I'd tried to kill you, you'd be dead."  
  
Kagome's stomach clenched into an obscene shape at his flat declaration, and she rubbed her throat. _It's alright_, she told herself. _He's not going to kill me. I'm still alive now, right? And once we talk to Kaede, this will all be cleared up. Then I won't have to deal with any more moody, electronic dog-boys_.  
  
Inuyasha knocked on the door with more force than was strictly necessary, shaking it on its hinges. Incase the occupant chose to ignore the pounding on her front door, he also shouted, "Hey, open up in there."  
  
Kagome patted Shippo reassuringly. The little fox clutched her arm. Now that the danger was past, he was back to his normal cowardly routine. He'd glared at the other youkai as though Inuyasha were evil incarnate since they left Kikyo's apartment, but hadn't said a word. "It'll be okay," she soothed quietly, tickling Shippo's tiny fox feet. When she looked up, Inuyasha was watching her incredulously.  
  
"You are aware he's not actually scared, aren't you?" he asked her slowly, as though he wanted to make sure a remarkably stupid child could follow. "He's not really…real."  
  
"Great, then you're not 'really' an asshole," Kagome shot back. She'd been defending herself to her friends for years, and now she had to do it with this creep to.  
  
Inuyasha's eyes narrowed, and he probably would have said something if the door had not opened at just that moment. Framed in the doorway was a woman in her mid sixties, short and square, with a weathered, natural looking face. Unlike some, Kaede had let herself settle into old age with out the aid of cosmetics. Kagome liked the face. Inuyasha wrinkled his nose.  
  
"You got old," he stated tactlessly.  
  
"And you did not," Kaede replied, not rising to the bait. "I see the girl reactivated you."  
  
He huffed and brushed past her into the apartment. Kagome glanced at Kaede apologetically. "I didn't know what he was like."  
  
"Don't worry," the old woman said, her no nonsense tone immediately putting Kagome at ease. "We'll get everything sorted out. I suppose you might as well come in."  
  
Kagome obliged, following Kaede into her home. Inuyasha had already taken a place leaning against a vacant wall, his arms crossed, and his head bowed. He looked rather like he had when the girl found him, except for the scowl. It was harder to appreciate his maker's work when his face was twisted down like that.  
  
"Well, hag, I gather you own me now?" he growled.  
  
"No," Kaede responded sourly. "That privilege belongs to Kagome."  
  
"What!" Both Kagome and Inuyasha shouted.  
  
*~*~*  
  
That's it for chapter two. What do you think? Questions? Comments? Suggestions? I've already got a lot of ideas for this, but that doesn't mean I'm not flexible.  
  
Thanks for reading!


	3. Ex Machina

A/N: To all of you who reviewed, may I say: Wow. I feel like John Grishim. . .only without the money. . .an the fame. . . Okay, so maybe I don't feel like quite like John Grishim, but I still feel pretty damn good about my reviews. I'm on a favorite list *Saro smiles like an idiot.* Thank you all. You all rock.  
  
I realize I didn't write it in the summery, but hopefully it's pretty clear this will be an Inu/Kag story. And there will be fluff, be patient. Besides, it's cute when they fight.  
  
Sango will show up, but not for a while.  
  
That's enough of that. On to the story!  
  
Disclaimer: If I owned Inuyasha, this wouldn't be a fanfiction now would it?  
  
**Synthetic Emotions**

Chapter Three: Ex Machina

  
  
For a moment, both Kagome and Inuyasha stared at Kaede in a mix of shock and horror. In the back of her mind, the girl wondered how a youkai could have either reaction, but she was more concerned with the fact that Kaede seemed to be dumping ownership of an unstable hanyou right in her lap.  
  
"She said you owned everything in Kikyo's place," Inuyasha said, recovering first. "That includes me."  
  
"I don't want another youkai," Kagome added her protest. "I already have Shippo!"  
  
"Y-yeah," agreed Shippo, pouting. "W-what would K-k-'gome need with h- him." Kagome looked down at the fox youkai in her arms with concern. Evidently his vocal unit had been damaged. _I'll have to remember to visit Miroku later_, she decided, and winced inwardly at the memory of his wandering hands. He would be able to fix Shippo, though, and he wasn't so bad. If you didn't stand too close. And kept and eye on him.  
  
"I _did_ own you Inuyasha," Kaede emphasized with the air of one who often had to deal with foolishness, and wasn't particularly fond of it. "But I told Kagome she could have anything she found, or just get rid of it if she wanted. That includes you."  
  
"That isn't binding," he said, eyes like champagne amber glaring at the old woman through his thick white bangs.  
  
"You know it is. I'll make it official, if you like."  
  
The hanyou's scowl deepened. The old woman gave no indication of cracking. He tilted his chin up at a defiant angle, but averted his eyes. Beaten, Kagome realized, when he once again muttered, "Keh."  
  
"And you, girl," Kaede said, shifting her authority on the other fool. "I'm sure you're fond of Shippo, but would you actually turn down a free Companion youkai? And a high quality one at that, despite his attitude. You can sell him if you really don't want him, but you should at least consider keeping him."  
  
"A. . .Companion youkai?" Kagome asked, startled. He would be, wouldn't he? Companion youkai were made to be just what their name implied; the perfect companions for their human masters (or mistress in this case). They were designed to serve almost any purpose a person might have, from bodyguard to personal masseuse, gourmet chef to legal advisor… to sexual surrogate. The last thought made Kagome blush despite herself. _Did Kikyo use him for that?_ she couldn't help but wonder. Was that the long dead woman's dirty little secret?  
  
_It wouldn't be a dirty secret,_ Kagome scolded herself. _That one of the things they're made for._  Many of her friends did just that. But there was something vaguely unnerving about the idea of being able to command Inuyasha to do that. Everything he did seemed to belie the fact that youkai were really nothing more than glorified major appliances. Like toaster ovens with artificial intelligence.  
  
"Yes, a Companion," the old woman said, snapping Kagome out of her line of thought. "A young woman moving out on her own for the first time could do worse than have one. At the very least you could probably use the security. I imagine your mother would feel more comfortable knowing that, if something happens, he'd be around. You know how mothers are, always worried about what will happen if someone breaks into their daughter's apartment. Shippo's hardly designed to handle that sort of thing."  
  
"You're going to be living alone?" asked Inuyasha before the girl could reply. She turned to give the hanyou a withering glance and was surprised to see he looked patently appalled by the idea of her being on her own.  
  
"I don't see why either of you should care," Kagome said instead of the retort that had been on the tip of her tongue.  
  
"I'm a youkai. I can't care," Inuyasha said, once again averting his eyes.  
  
"Well I do." Kaede planted fists on her wide hips. She managed to include both the girl and the disgruntled hanyou in her disapproving look. "My sister was much older than you when she was killed."  
  
Kagome could not keep her spirits from flagging at her landlady's last argument. There was always violence in the world. Women were always more likely to be the victim. Even strong, self-sufficient women were easier targets than most men.  
  
"Kikyo was killed?" Inuyasha asked softly, his rough voice shattering the quiet that followed Kaede's statement. "Not that I care," he added haughtily, "but I hadn't heard that before and I just wanted to make sure it was right."  
  
"Yes, Inuyasha, that is right," Kaede told him sadly. Inuyasha made a show of not taking an interest, but it was fake. Odd as that sounded, his disinterest was fake. _He did care about her? Impossible. Still… _ Still, Kagome couldn't shake the impression that he did just that.  
  
"Inuyasha, would you please wait outside for a moment? I'd like to speak with Kagome alone," the old woman requested gently.  
  
"Why should I? If you don't own me, I don't have to do what you say. I can stay right here as long as—"  
  
"Inuyasha, will you please wait outside for a sec."  
  
He did not like being defeated. If was written all over his face and in his posture. However, evidently Kaede was right and her ownership was binding. After only instant, he snorted harshly and left. He slammed the door behind himself. Kagome jumped at the loud bang it made.  
  
"You've already figured it out, haven't you?" the old woman asked with the hanyou gone.  
  
"He actually feels, doesn't he…" It sounded crazy to say it aloud, but it was true. Kagome couldn't make herself doubt it.  
  
Kaede sighed and nodded. "That's why hanyou are so unpredictable. They… think, but all youkai do that to some extent. It's what sets them apart from robots. Hanyou think creatively, though, and they feel. That's why they were recalled. They develop their own personalities from experience, just like children."  
  
"That's impossible," Kagome protested weakly.  
  
"Impossible, but true," Kaede responded promptly, then her expression turned grave. "At least consider keeping him, Kagome. If you sell him, he'll almost certainly be recalled."  
  
"What would happen if he was?"  
  
"He'd either be dismantled, or refurbished with a new emotion simulator and a deleted memory. Either way…"  
  
"Either way, it'd be like killing him," the girl finished with a sinking feeling in her stomach. She didn't like the guy, but it wasn't right to just let him be erased, was it? He wasn't a human. He'd been made, not born, but that did not make it better, did it?  
  
"I'll think about it," Kagome finally promised. She adjusted Shippo in her arms, realizing that if she wanted to visit Miroku's today, she had to get going quickly. From the hall, she could hear someone swearing with zeal. The girl shook her head and offered her landlady a wry smile. "He must have had some childhood, huh."  
  
Kagome went to join Inuyasha, leaving Kaede laughing at her back.  
  
*~*~*  
  
"Hey, bitch, where are we going?"  
  
Kagome glared at Inuyasha, who followed her like an obedient, but somewhat bad tempered puppy. "You will call me Kagome, not bitch," she told him firmly. If she really was going to keep him, then that was one thing that would have to change as of now.  
  
"Alright, 'Kagome,'" he said, somehow managing to make her name sound as derogatory as 'bitch.' "So, where are we going?"  
  
"We're going to see a friend of mine to get Shippo fixed. It's your fault he's broken in the first place, so don't even start complaining about it." Kagome wasn't in the greatest mood. For one, her 'friend' would still want to be paid, and while her family was well off, her own funds for the month were next to nil from the expenses of moving. Of course, that wasn't the problem, but it was easier to think about money than it was to ponder what was really bothering her, which was trailing her at a short distance, white hair gleaming realistically in the afternoon sunshine, mobile ears twitching irritably. The more she thought about him, the less sure she was what to do with him. She couldn't let him be reclaimed. Maybe it shouldn't matter, but Kagome could not convince herself of that. She couldn't even sell Shippo, for god's sake. How could she do that to Inuyasha?  
  
"I could do that," Inuyasha said. It wasn't quite an offer, but he seemed a little offended that she hadn't asked.  
  
"N-n-no!" Shippo stuttered, fear twisting his child-like face.  
  
"Under the circumstance, I think I'll have to decline."  
  
"Because he doesn't like me?"  
  
"Yeah," Kagome said in a tone that warned not to be challenged. "Do you have a problem?"  
  
"No," he said, ignoring the warning. "But you are crazy. You know that, right?"  
  
"Why? Because he's a youkai, and not 'really real'?" she asked.  
  
"Well, yeah," he told her.  
  
"Well, maybe he thinks it's real," she argued. "Maybe he is fake, but if he believes he's scared, then what difference does it make?"  
  
"That makes no sense," Inuyasha objected.  
  
"We're here," Kagome said, happy to end the discussion. _Does he think he's fake, too?_ No wonder he was so temperamental. She shrugged off the musing and stepped into a shop. A bell over the door rang, announcing her arrival with a sharp jingle. The shop's interior was much dimmer than it had been outside, forcing Kagome to blink several times before she could make out her new surroundings. Not that much ever changed in Miroku's.  
  
Bits and pieces of youkai cluttered shelves on two walls, some in their plastic manufacturer packaging, others still greasy with lubricant from the unit they were removed from. The complete head of a female youkai was laid out at about eye level, most likely because Miroku knew some of his customers would find it disconcerting. That was the sort of thing he would do.  
  
The man himself sat behind a glass counter, holding a magazine with a picture of some anti-youkai activist on the cover. He was young, only a couple of years older than Kagome herself, and rather handsome in a disheveled playboy sort of way, with his clothes mussed and his hair coming out of its short tail to fall across his forehead at odd angles. Kagome guessed that they had distracted him from the article he was reading when they came in, because he was staring up at them raptly. Not at her, the girl noted, but at the youkai following her.  
  
"Wow," was the first thing out of Miroku's mouth. "Have you finally gotten a youkai more your age, Kagome?"  
  
"Um, sort of," Kagome muttered. "I kind of ended up with him."  
  
"You're not selling him, are you? I mean, is he really an Inutaiyoukai?" The young man was nearly drooling over the prospect. "He's a Companion, right? And he looks like a one of a kind--he's a little young, but that can make him a specialty model, which would only drive up the price with the right buyer. Is he a hanyou?" Miroku's scrutiny became more intense as he appraised Inuyasha. Kagome hadn't been aware he knew this much about youkai. "He is. Damn Kagome, I could get you a cool million four for this one, easy."  
  
"Ah, no thanks. I don't think I'm going to sell him just yet," the girl said uneasily. "Actually, we're here about Shippo."  
  
"You're selling Shippo?" Miroku asked, surprised.  
  
"No, he needs repairs. He fell," Kagome lied uneasily.  
  
"Okay, bring him here and let's have a look."  
  
Kagome complied, setting Shippo down on the counter in front of him. Miroku immediately switched the fox youkai off and got to work. Shippo's face relaxed. He looked like he was asleep, just as Inuyasha had.  
  
"So, tell me how you got him," Miroku commanded, pointing to Inuyasha with a jerk of his chin. Again, Kagome did as she was told, starting with Shippo finding the youkai storage closet, and ending with Kaede's confirmation that the hanyou did indeed belong to her. She edited out the part where he choked her, and hoped his next question wasn't about her bruises. With any luck, he wouldn't notice those at all.  
  
When she was done, Inuyasha found his voice. "Which wires did you have to connect?" He looked slightly sick asking.  
  
"The light blue one," Kagome said, reasonably sure she remembered correctly.  
  
Inuyasha's sick look worsened and suddenly he found the ground very interesting. If he were human, he would have turned green. Kagome couldn't help but feel a stab of pity for the hanyou. "Why? What's the light blue wire?"  
  
Inuyasha didn't look up when he answered. "It's part of my neural circuit."  
  
"So?"  
  
He didn't respond. _Machine's do not get nauseous_, the girl told herself, but seeing the hanyou, it was difficult to believe.  
  
"Ah," Miroku cleared his throat. "It would seem that this Kikyo more or less disconnected his nervous system with that one plug. Sort of overkill, in my opinion."  
  
Kagome tore her gaze away from Inuyasha. If she had any reserves about her belief that the hanyou felt, they were swept away now. Something that couldn't actually feel could not look as hurt as he did. It was almost like the look of betrayal that he'd worn when she woke him, except now it reached his eyes. The eyes of a machine could never contain that much bitterness. Kagome shivered, and saw that she wasn't the only one to notice Inuyasha's emotion. Miroku was considering.  
  
"How long?" Kagome asked, hoping to distract her friend from the hanyou's display. "To fix Shippo, I mean?"  
  
"What? Oh." Miroku gave himself a shake. "Come back tomorrow. I'll have him done by then."  
  
"Thanks so much, Miroku. I should really be going then. Moving and all."  
  
"Of course," he agreed, smiling now, and hopped over the counter to bid her good bye.  
  
_Oh great_, Kagome thought, _I thought I might actually get out of here without this, for once_.  
  
"I'll see you tomorrow, then." She said, wanting nothing more than to beat a hasty retreat.  
  
"Of course," he agreed.  
  
Accepting the inevitable, Kagome turned to go, only to have a growling hanyou lean across her. And grab Miroku's hand mere inches from groping her ass.  
  
"Don't even think about it," Inuyasha gritted out, his attention resting meaningfully on the young man's captured hand. One claw caressed the back of Miroku's wrist just hard enough to raise a welt.  
  
Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Kagome pulled Inuyasha out the door behind her. For the first time since she met Miroku, she'd escaped without an encounter with his roving hands. Maybe having a Companion youkai wouldn't be so bad after all.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Hey, look at that, no cliffhanger! What the hell am I thinking? Oh well, I didn't even know I wrote cliffhangers until two of my friends kindly explained to me how evil I was.  
  
I've become addicted to reviews, so please send me a comment or, better yet, a critique. Good or bad, I don't mind. I'm not so delicate that one bad review will make me stop writing.  
  
And if you recognized the line "I feel like John Grishim," from Chasing Amy, you get a cookie.  
  
Thank you so much for reading. Until next time.


	4. Artiface

A/N: Once again, thanks to all those who reviewed. It proves there is someone out there.  
  
A Warning: This chapter is a tad angsty. Some Sess fans may have a problem with it. Don't mistake me, I like Sesshomaru, which is probably why I enjoy torturing him. If all goes as planned, I think that this is as dark as it gets.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. . .you know, if anyone hasn't figured this out by now, they're probably no going to.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Sesshomaru regarded his reflection in the full-length mirror, turning to examine himself from every angle. His mistress was becoming fidgety and withdrawn. He knew from experience what that meant. It meant he was about to be sold. Again. Not that he cared, but he was concerned academically. He rarely stayed with the same owner more than two or three years, and never longer than five. After more than sixty years and twenty masters, he could not help but wonder if this was due to some flaw in him. Every time he bent his facilities to that question, he came to the same conclusion: the fault was not with him, but the humans who expected warmth from their youkai.  
  
If his current mistress was opting to sell him, as so many had in the past, then at least his appearance tonight would have nothing to do with it. He knew the woman's taste very well. He knew she would be fond of the sight of him as he was now, with his long platinum hair falling straight and unbound, swept back behind his pointed ears to better reveal the elegant lines of his face. He wore black leather pants--the things seemed to be a fetish with this particular mistress--which clung to his legs in smooth, oily plains, and rose low on his hips so both the contours of his obliques and the narrow trail of fine silver hair trailing down from his navel were clearly visible, drawing attention to one of his more widely appreciated attributes. His shirt was unbuttoned, made of metallic black fabric so sheer that the play of muscles in his back, arms, and shoulders need not be left to the imagination. The color of his clothing made him look paler than he really was, and he would have appeared washed out were the effect less striking.  
  
He looked like a whore.  
  
The thought was unbecoming, but the conclusion not inapt. His mistress enjoyed showing him off in this sort of attire. Sesshomaru almost suspected she was trying to rub in his position in the world. . .which was, admittedly, often flat on his back. If she expected to get a rise out of him, however, she was sadly misguided. He had endured this sort of treatment before, and likely would again. The fact was if he were capable, he probably would have found her behavior amusing. He was a youkai, and youkai did not experience feelings. He could not 'feel' demeaned or embarrassed by their ploys. He could not 'feel' anything. Not in the way these sorry, deluded souls craved. He was insulted that they expected it from him.  
  
He heard his current mistress coming long before she knocked on the door to his room. She leaned in to peek at him. He studied her in turn, mostly waiting to see what would happen next. The woman looked thirty-ish, but if Sesshomaru were to venture and estimate, it would be fifteen years higher. Dye kept her feathery hair raven black, and in addition to the skillful use of various powders and creams, several costly medical procedures had gone into maintaining her appearance. Her dusky violet eyes were lined with dark paint, and clumps of mascara could be seen in her lashes. 'She would probably be counted a beauty,' Sesshomaru mused as he studied her, watching him, 'but her beauty is as much artifice as mine.' And only somewhat less convincing.  
  
Minutes ticked by, and finally the woman slunk into the room. She was elaborately dressed, her gown made of many layers of purple, black and white. The topmost tier of fabric was black taffeta, with long dagged sleeves that nearly hid her fingertips. Perhaps she intended her appearance to be fragile. She succeeded in looking brittle, like a dried flower.  
  
"You look good," the woman said. She was unsettled. Sesshomaru could hear it in the quaver of her voice, the irregular patter of her heart. He could smell it as a bitter, anxious tang in the air.  
  
"Madame," he acknowledged, turning to face her fully. 'Will it be tonight? Will she tell me, or just abandon me? Will I go to auction?' The youkai had asked himself these questions before.  
  
"Is that all you'll say to me?" his mistress asked. "'Madame.'" She made her tone scornful.  
  
'Tonight,' Sesshomaru predicted. 'She'll tell me, then get rid of me as quickly as possible.'  
  
"What would you have me say?" the youkai asked coolly.  
  
"I will not tell you," she said. "I will not give you words to feed back to me." Her voice was more calm than he expected, more resigned. She approached him slowly, her high heels clicking against the paneled floor. Fair, slender hands reached out to grab hold of the youkai's collar, and she pulled herself roughly against his chest. She gazed up at him, her almond shaped eyes hooded, her painted nails tracing patterns along his collarbone. Sesshomaru did not know her game, but he was familiar with his cards. He leaned forward, meaning to deliver a light kiss to her lips, but she shoved him away. "I've had enough of you," she declared, primly straightening her rumpled dress.  
  
'I wonder if she's satisfied with her little outburst,' he thought.  
  
"You are not a man," the woman said.  
  
"No, Madame," the youkai agreed, "I am not."  
  
"You are nothing but a toy," she pressed. "I don't need toys."  
  
'So, it's to be now.' Sesshomaru waited for her to finish.  
  
"As of tomorrow, you are no longer mine," she continued. "I need a man, and you aren't even a convincing copy."  
  
'Am I to be offended by this?' The youkai saw no reason to be and chose to remain silent.  
  
"You'll be going to my sister as a gift. She might find a use for you. Her husband is gone most of the time, and with that daughter of hers. . ." his mistress shook herself distastefully. "You'll go to her in the morning."  
  
'Why are you telling me this, Madame?'  
  
"I'll be better off without you," the woman concluded. She stood before him, beaming with confidence and success. As though he would care that she could throw him away. As though he'd be hurt by her giving him away like a hand-me down sweater. She just didn't understand, did she?  
  
He would show her.  
  
In one fluid motion, Sesshomaru stepped into her, sliding one arm around her body while his other hand cupped her cheek. She tensed in his grasp, and the already unsteady beat of her heart lurched. Her body temperature dropped, and beads of sweat broke out on her forehead. Good, she was beginning to understand. He dipped his head and nuzzled the woman's ear, then laid an open mouthed kiss on the artery in her throat. His teeth grazed her skin, fangs scratching ever so lightly over pulse point.  
  
His mistress let out a gasp, and the youkai knew that the reality of their situation had finally dawned on her. If not for the innate codes in every domestic youkai, he could kill her. He could kill her, and feel nothing, the same as he felt nothing when he served her.  
  
After a moment, he released her. The woman staggered back, her eyes no longer heavy, but wide and staring. Her breath was ragged. Her smell was rank with fear. All her earlier confidence was shattered. She swallowed hard, her eyes darting as she searched for an escape. Sesshomaru made no move to stop her as she fled, leaving the youkai alone with his reflection.  
  
Sesshomaru sighed, turning to once again regard himself critically. After a moment he shook his head, then went to his wardrobe to find something else to wear.  
  
*~*~*  
  
(A/N: I was thinking of ending this chapter here, but decided I just couldn't completely exclude Inuyasha and Kagome.)  
  
*~*~*  
  
Inuyasha followed his new mistress at a respectable distance; not because he respected her, but desiring privacy. In truth, the hanyou had taken a number of shocks today, starting with waking up to find more than five decades had passed him by, and ending with the revelation that Kikyo had not only shut him down, but interrupted one of his necessary circuits as well. The latter was adding insult to injury, but he couldn't help but wonder why. Why would Kikyo have deactivated him in the first place? It made no sense, and the only person who might have been able to enlighten him was dead.  
  
That particular bit of information was almost more than he could process. Kikyo, dead. His Kikyo, dead. He couldn't bring himself to think about it, but he couldn't stop the thought from floating to the surface again and again, no matter how he tried to keep it down. He was supposed to protect his owner, a fact which was written indelibly in his code. He was meant to protect Kikyo, and she was dead.  
  
Now he had this girl instead. She smelled enough like Kikyo that when he'd come to with most of his senses distorted, he mistook one for the other. Kagome was not Kikyo, though. Among other things, Kikyo had realized the difference between a real, living, animate being, and a stupid locomotorized doll. This girl, though. . . She didn't seem to care that there was a difference, which was idiocy to the very root. As a result, she was keeping him so that he wouldn't be dismantled.  
  
To think old Kaede had believed he wouldn't be able to hear their conversation through the paper-thin walls of an apartment.  
  
Inuyasha felt his systems charge at the thought of being dismantled, as though he was preparing for a fight, even though there was no threat to his charge or himself. He could almost think that the feeling might be fear. He did not want to be taken apart. He did not want to have his memory taken from him, to have a new emotion simulator installed. He did not want to think of someone else being assembled out of his components. If he survived, then he would have this girl to thank for it. He should be grateful.  
  
Youkai could not be grateful. 'And neither can I,' he reaffirmed silently.  
  
"Inuyasha," Kagome said, interrupting his spinning thoughts.  
  
"What?" he asked gruffly.  
  
"Why are you walking way back there? You could come up here and talk to me."  
  
"Why would I want to do that?"  
  
"Maybe I want company," the girl snapped. "Maybe I don't feel comfortable with you stalking me like that."  
  
Which reminded him, "You weren't really going to live by yourself, were you? You were going to buy a Companion. . . or a Security youkai at least, weren't you?"  
  
"What makes you say that?" Kagome asked, seeming genuinely confused. "I have Shippo. I don't see why I 'need' another youkai. Not that I won't keep you or anything." The last was added hastily, as though she was afraid she'd offended him.  
  
"Because it's. . . I mean, it's not. . ." Inuyasha struggled to find words for the reason and found that his vocabulary was lacking. " Because it's not safe," he finally managed to say. "Humans aren't strong enough to take care of themselves. That's why they made youkai, isn't it?"  
  
"Human took care of themselves just fine for centuries before they made youkai," Kagome assured him with less sarcasm than she might have. Inuyasha knew how stupid he'd sounded. "Besides, why do you care?"  
  
"Keh. I'm programmed to think of your safety. I don't care."  
  
The girl eyed him skeptically. "But you can protect me now, so why do you care what I was going to do?"  
  
'Damn.' She had a point. Inuyasha hated loosing arguments. Kikyo hadn't argued with him. Kikyo would have just told him what to do. Unwilling to give up, he lied. "I just wanted to make sure you weren't going to do anything else that stupid."  
  
"I won't," the girl said placatingly. Why was she smiling? It was making him paranoid. There was no reason for her to be smiling. 'Humans are strange,' he told himself. 'Maybe she's just smiles all the time.' She hadn't been smiling before, but then, she'd sort of had reasons not to. Like having her life threatened.  
  
"What's next?" the hanyou asked, changing the subject.  
  
Kagome stopped smiling. "We're going ho--to my Mom's house. I 'wanted' to sleep in my own apartment tonight, but I didn't get the chance to finish moving."  
  
"Oh," Inuyasha said, a little guilty. "Well don't worry about it. I'll help you finish moving tomorrow."  
  
"Really?" She was smiling again.  
  
"Well, I assume you want me to," Inuyasha said warily. "You own me. If you want me to help you move, I will."  
  
"Oh." The smile vanished again, and the sad look in her eyes said that it wouldn't be back for a while.  
  
'Damn.' Inuyasha felt another wave of guilt. Now he wanted Kagome's smile to come back.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: That's all for today, folks. Come back later and we'll see if we can't squeeze a little fluff into the next chapter.  
  
For those who noticed Sesshomaru seemed a little moody for a guy who doesn't have emotions; you're right, he did, didn't he.  
  
Thanks for reading. 


	5. Cartesian Logic

A/N: First and always, thanks for reviewing! Knowing that people are reading this and that they like it really does help me pull the next chapter together quickly. I'm happy that I've had the time to update so much, though I'll probably have more hours at work next week so I might not be able to maintain my current pace.  
  
Sorry to Kag/Sess fans. I don't have any inherent problems with alternate pairings, but in this story I have plans for Sess. Maybe next time.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. If I did, Kagome would stop ruining her school uniform by wearing it in the past.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Kaede's prediction had proven right. Kagome's mother was thrilled that her daughter would have Inuyasha around if anything happened. What was more, she thought the Companion youkai was adorable. She had made it a point to drag Kagome aside to tell her in no uncertain terms that her hanyou was the perfect thing for her now that she'd be on her own. He was top of the line, programmed to protect her, and no doubt loaded with special features. Mom had also fawned over Inuyasha's ears, which the hanyou had grudgingly allowed. Heck, she even thought his grumpy attitude was cute.  
  
Kagome finished brushing her teeth and wondered what in the world she would do with her new youkai. She had never really intended to get one like Inuyasha. She wasn't a die-hard activist or anything, but the girl had always tended to seek out human company instead of surrounding herself with the mechanized kind. Shippo was an exception, but even he had usually taken the back seat to her human friends.  
  
She supposed she'd just have to figure it out as she went. There was no way the girl was going to let Inuyasha be killed because. . . because he actually felt. It was wrong. People shouldn't be able to just turn him on and off, or mess with his personality, or anything like that if he could think and feel. Just because someone made him out of metal and plastic didn't give them the excuse to change him like that. More thought went into making him than went into making most humans.  
  
Suddenly it struck Kagome that if Inuyasha was a sentient being who was forced to serve others whether he wanted to or not, then the hanyou was a slave. He wouldn't be recognized as such under the law, but he could think egocentrically, and he 'felt'. Real or not, he was a slave.  
  
'No wonder he's so unhappy,' the girl thought as her realization sunk in. Like everyone else, she'd been taught that slavery was evil, and there was never, 'ever' a good reason to compel someone to service. Except, as a youkai, Inuyasha wasn't a 'someone,' but a 'something.' He didn't have any rights.  
  
'I think, I am.'  
  
With a shiver, Kagome abandoned her morning ritual and went to find Inuyasha.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Down stairs, Inuyasha was rapidly coming to love the fact that he wasn't intended for children. Kagome's younger brother Souta was bombarding him with questions and comments and stories so fast that the befuddled hanyou hardly had time to register one before he was assaulted with two more. It was a display of the kind of enthusiastic obsession that leads children to learn how to pronounce the names of dinosaurs and explain all the tricks to their favorite video game in excruciating detail.  
  
". . .apply to self-defense?" the boy prattled on. "Could you kill another youkai to save yourself, even if my sister wasn't in danger? What about a human? What if my sister 'was' in danger? Do you have weapons?! I bet you do. My friend Taru's dad had a youkai that. . ."  
  
'Does this kid ever stop?' Inuyasha wondered. 'Does he ever 'breath'?' He was sure his data banks were firm on the fact that humans required oxygen to live, but he was beginning to have his doubts. Souta had been at this for a quarter of an hour, and as yet showed no sign of stopping for air.  
  
"No, kid, I don't have guns," Inuyasha answered a question he thought he had heard in there somewhere. "Only military youkai have projectile weapons. That sort of thing is illegal on domestic youkai ."  
  
"Really," Souta exclaimed, eyes shining with admiration. "Is that why you have claws? I bet your claws are really sharp! Can you kill someone with them? Could you kill a youkai with them? Can I see them? Are you a dog youkai? Can I touch your ears? I bet you hear really good. Why dog- ears? Don't most. . ."  
  
"Yeah, I guess," Inuyasha said, struggling to keep up with this new volley of questions. "Yes, they are. Yes. Probably. I don't know, I don't think your mother would--Yes I am, but. . ." It was pointless. He might be a machine, be there was only so fast he could speak and Souta wasn't giving him time. His ears began twitching irritably  
  
Suddenly, the little boy was cut of by giggling. Both Souta and Inuyasha followed the giggling to its source, and found Kagome standing on the stairs. She was trying to stifle her laughter behind her hand, but failing miserably.  
  
"How long have you been standing there?" Inuyasha demanded.  
  
"Only a couple of minutes," Kagome managed between giggles. She was smiling unabashedly through her fingers.  
  
"And you didn't even come down and save me from this brat?"  
  
"Hey!" Souta yelped.  
  
"What kind of protection are you if you have to be saved from a little boy?" the girl asked archly.  
  
"Feh. It's not the same."  
  
"So you are designed to protect!" Souta interjected happily, his spirit completely restored. He didn't even seem to remember that Inuyasha had called him a brat. "That is so cool."  
  
Inuyasha gave Kagome a look that probably screamed, 'Help me, help me, help me.' He might have been ashamed under any other situation, but he was not made for this. Once he had wondered why nanny youkai all seemed so over-lithiated. Now he knew. If they weren't that way, their circuits would fry inside a week.  
  
Kagome laughed again, but still came to his rescue. "Souta," she said, "leave Inuyasha alone. We have to finish moving today, then pick up Shippo from Miroku's, and I work tomorrow so I have to get it done now."  
  
"Ah," the boy sighed dejectedly, and moved out of the way so the hanyou could join Kagome at the bottom of the stairs.  
  
"Come on, Inuyasha," Kagome said, ignoring her brother. "If we don't get started, we'll never be finished in time."  
  
'That's the second time she's saved me,' Inuyasha thought as he gratefully followed his new mistress out the door. 'Or the third, if you count turning me on again in the first place.' She was smiling again, he noted with a strange satisfaction.  
  
They were walking again. He'd spent most of his time with this girl walking. Not that he really minded walking, but weren't they supposed to be in a hurry? Hurrying didn't usually involve casual strolls.  
  
"Hey--" he'd been about to say bitch, but her prior command against it still held. That was going to take some getting used to. "Kagome, wouldn't we get there faster if we weren't walking?"  
  
"And what do you suggest?" the girl looked up puzzled.  
  
Inuyasha couldn't suppress a smirk. "Get on."  
  
"What?"  
  
*~*~*  
  
They were going fast. Very fast. Kagome was riding piggyback on the hanyou as he ran, her arms wrapped around his neck and his elbows hooked under her knees. She was very secure, but she was also going very, very fast. Kagome had seen youkai move at such speeds before, but seldom, and never with a human along for the ride. It took her a little bit to get used to how fast he was going.  
  
Then, just as she was becoming comfortable with Inuyasha's inhuman velocity, he bounded over an intersection, sending the poor girl for another loop. After that he leapt forward from time to time, avoiding obstacles and traffic as though they were all beneath his notice.  
  
By the time they reached Miroku's shop, Kagome was reveling in it. She almost wished she could do it too. It must be amazing to be able to move like that. She was momentarily glad that Inuyasha could feel, no matter how he denied it. The idea of being able to run like that--nearly flying!--and not being able to appreciate it was terribly depressing.  
  
Inuyasha set her down gently. She wobbled, trying to regain her balance, which made the hanyou grunt "Feh," and smirk at the same time. Kagome ignored him. She was too thrilled with the quick trip here to be angry with him.  
  
Miroku's shop was precisely how they'd found it before, including Miroku himself behind the counter, reading a magazine with an anti-youkai activist on the cover. It was a different magazine, but the same activist: a very serious looking young woman with long, dark hair and stern dark eyes. Despite her expression, the woman was rather pretty, in a sad way. Kagome felt sorry for her almost instantly, even though she didn't know why.  
  
"Have you fixed the brat?" Inuyasha asked Miroku.  
  
"Inuyasha," Kagome chided him. "Don't be rude."  
  
"I wasn't being rude."  
  
"Yes, you were."  
  
"Um," Miroku interrupted. "Shippo's in back. I'll go get him." He was giving both the girl and her hanyou a funny look. 'Great,' Kagome thought. 'Now he's going to think I'm insane for arguing with a youkai. I wonder if he knows anything about hanyou. He seemed very well informed yesterday. . .'  
  
The thought trailed off as she noticed Inuyasha's scowl. "What?"  
  
He snorted and looked away without answering. Kagome almost commanded him to tell her, but then her thoughts from earlier came rushing back and she couldn't do it. If she told him to tell her, he would have to. His programming would allow no less. Whether he wanted to tell her or not, he would. A wave of sympathy swept away her anger. 'I'd be moody too, if I were him,' she thought.  
  
"What are you staring at?" Inuyasha asked her suspiciously.  
  
"Oh, nothing," she said, and felt her cheeks heat with a blush. She looked away quickly, hoping he wouldn't notice.  
  
Miroku reappeared with an active Shippo riding on his shoulder. "Kagome!" he shouted, leaping into the girl's arms in a rush. "Kagome, you're back." Then the little fox demon's eyes landed on Inuyasha and he frowned. "What's he doing with you?"  
  
"He's going to be staying with us," Kagome told Shippo, ignoring the pout he turned on her. She turned to Miroku. "How much?"  
  
"For you?" The young man gave her a charming, rakish grin. "Fourteen hundred credits."  
  
"What a rip off," Inuyasha said. "I'd have done it for free."  
  
"No!" Shippo said, burying his face in Kagome's shoulder.  
  
"That's a little more than I expected," she said. In reality, it was almost all she had.  
  
"Well, if you agreed to bare my child--"  
  
"If she what?!" Inuyasha roared, fixing Miroku with a look which promised maiming.  
  
"It's not what you think," the young man explained defensively. "I come from a very old, but sadly dwindled family. It is my duty to--"  
  
"I don't care," the hanyou growled in his chest.  
  
"No, Miroku, I can pay," Kagome broke in, probably saving her friend's life. She paid, then fled the shop before Inuyasha had the chance to do or say anything else.  
  
'Wow, that's the second time in a row I've gotten away from Miroku without being groped.' The girl looked back at her hanyou, sulking behind her, and smiled at him.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Honestly, I don't know where this came from. I had chapter 5 all planned out, and this is not it. The only thing that's the same is about the first half of the first paragraph. All this stuff was going to be implied. I thought about deleting it all and starting over, but then it would just be longer before the next update. If you don't like it, tell me and I might take it down.  
  
Please excuse my random chapter mitosis. The real chapter 5 should be done soon, and posted as chapter 6. If this happen anymore, this fic is going to get long really fast.  
  
Also, to avoid having people 'correct' me, when I quote Descartes as "I think, I am," I am not misquoting "I think, therefore I am." "I think, I am," is how the original argument is written. "I think, therefore I am," comes from a latter treatise. Both are correct. I prefer "I think, I am," because it sounds less like an argument and more like an affirmation. Alright, enough philosophy 101.  
  
Thank you for reading. Tell me if you like this chapter or if I should get rid of it.  
  
Until next time. 


	6. Special Features

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Looks like it's here to stay. Now, without further adieu, on with the story.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Moving turned out to be much easier than Kagome would have thought, thanks mostly due to Inuyasha's physical strength. Within the first minute and a half, it became clear that she wasn't going to have to call Hojo to help her move furniture. After an hour and a half, Kagome was starting to think that Inuyasha was not only capable of lifting Kikyo's sofa by himself, but could probably of juggling her entire living room set. Now, she was thoroughly impressed by his manufacturers. First they had made what had to be the most realistic youkai she had ever seen, then they made him faster than any human could ever be, and stronger than any ten men together. And she was only beginning to find out about his features.  
  
Kagome let her mind wander as she packed the dead woman's possessions into cardboard boxes. Her mother might have been right after all. Having the Companion youkai might not be so bad. His attitude wasn't always the best, but she was starting to think she could over look that. He might be handy to have around. She would never have to worry about not being able to open a jar again. 'And maybe I can convince him to give me another ride,' she thought a little hopefully.  
  
"Hey, Kagome?" a high-pitched voice said, startling the girl out of her mentation.  
  
"Shippo?" She looked around and found her fox youkai standing in the doorway. "What is it?"  
  
"I was wondering, have you found any more number-locks?"  
  
For a moment, Kagome didn't understand what she was hearing, then she recalled the piece of paper folded up in the pocket of the pants she'd taken off yesterday. There had been three combinations on it, but so far she'd only found one lock.  
  
"No," she told Shippo. "I haven't. That's. . . very strange." She made a mental note to ask Kaede about the other numbers later. Or perhaps she should ask Inuyasha. He had been Kikyo's, after all. Maybe he would know.  
  
"Aren't you going to find out what they're for?" Shippo asked with a childish curiosity that made Kagome smile.  
  
"Not right now," she said. "Right now I'm going to finish this, then I'm going to order takeout, have a shower and go to bed. Whatever those combinations are for will just have to wait for a day when I have more time." The little youkai pouted, and Kagome's smile grew. "Come help me if you're bored"  
  
"Youkai don't get bored," Inuyasha said, appearing as if by magic. The girl rolled her eyes.  
  
"Not this again," she muttered under her breath. Fixing a disapproving glare on the hanyou, she said, "I was under the impression youkai didn't argue with their masters either."  
  
"I am not arguing!" he said, voice rising defensively. He obviously didn't see the irony in this statement. Kagome could not help but laugh.  
  
Inuyasha blinked, then edged away as though her sanity were in question. "Ah, I was going to see what you wanted me to do with the love- seat," he changed the subject quickly. "You want to toss it out with the rest?"  
  
"Leave it. I'll decide what I want to do with it tomorrow." She duct- taped the last box, then sat back on her heels and pushed the hair out of her eyes. She was, she realized absently, very dirty. Even though Inuyasha had taken care of the heavy stuff, she had still managed to work up a sweat, and what was worse, she was absolutely covered in dust. She sighed, supposing that was a danger in cleaning out an apartment that hadn't been touched in fifty years. She was definitely going to appreciate that shower, but first, she was hungry.  
  
Kagome stood, stretched, then went to find a phone book.  
  
*~*~*  
  
That night, Kagome had one of the best showers she had ever had in her life. It was amazing how she could not really pay any attention to the simple luxuries in life, like being able to stand under a jet of wonderfully hot water, then one day could put everything back in perspective. All and all, this ranked in the three best showers she'd ever taken. It was her first in her new home, in her own bathroom, which made it special, and after a day spent moving, it was doubly appreciated.  
  
'I wonder what the best shower I ever took was?' she asked herself idly as she leaned back into the spray, soaking her hair.  
  
Unbidden, Kagome remembered the first out door concert she'd ever gone to. She'd loved every moment of it, despite the fact it had been in the middle of a drought, with no shade whatsoever, and the temperature had gone over a hundred degrees. The venue was a park, but because of the weather and water rationing, the whole place had been a desert. When she got home, tired, sore and very dirty, she had really understood the beauty of the shower. That had to be the best shower she'd ever taken.  
  
"That's kind of pathetic. . ." she mumbled, letting the hot water ease the aches in her shoulders. Most people's best shower ever probably involves another person.  
  
Kagome sighed, suddenly a little less pleased with her situation.  
  
Her love life was practically nonexistent. She had only had a couple of boyfriends in High School, and neither of them had been particularly serious. She was still friends with Hojo. She hadn't seen the other boy since he broke up with her. She hadn't really been attracted to Hojo, he was a friend, and when he asked her out, she gave him a chance. That was the story of their relationship. Eiji had been the complete opposite. She hadn't liked him at all, but there was this sort of chemistry. She regretted some of the things she did with him, even though they never went all the way. That was why they broke up. Looking back on it, she knew he had been a mistake from the beginning.  
  
Normally Kagome wasn't depressed about being single. She liked to think of herself as a fairly self-sufficient girl, not the kind who always had to have somebody else all the time. Sometimes she wondered if she ought to have looked a little harder for another boyfriend after Eiji, though. Maybe then she wouldn't get so lonely at odd times.  
  
Or maybe she was just sexually frustrated. That, in her mind, was not a good reason to start looking for a guy. After all, if all she wanted to do was sleep with someone, she had a perfectly good Companion youkai sitting in her living room.  
  
Thinking of Inuyasha like that made butterflies the size blackbirds materialize in her stomach, and she suddenly found herself wondering what it would be like to have Inuyasha in the shower with her (he probably needed one, too, to wash off the dust if nothing else). She pictured what he would look like with his long white hair wet, clinging to his body, little rivulets of water running over his bare chest and torso--both of which she's had a good look at when she was trying to reactivate him. She could just see his dripping bangs falling in front of his amber eyes. Only, in the girl's imagination, his face wasn't drawn into the scowl that he always seemed to wear. Instead, his expression was soft and lazy, those golden eyes half lidded as he leaned toward her. . .  
  
Kagome shook her head to rid it of the budding fantasy. She was willing to admit that the hanyou was handsome, because he was made to be, but that did not mean she was going to use him like that. For one, he was a jerk. For another, he had nearly killed her when they first met.  
  
Kagome startled herself when she discovered that she had completely forgiven him for that.  
  
'Shouldn't I be afraid of him?' She'd been terrified when she was actually choking her, but it was as though that fear had completely vanished almost as soon as he stopped being actively homicidal.  
  
The real reason she would not use Inuyasha like that was because if she wanted him to, he would. It didn't matter if he wanted it or not. When Kagome slept with someone, it had to be because they both wanted it. She didn't care what her friends did with their youkai. Even if she hadn't known Inuyasha could feel, she would have been uncomfortable with the idea.  
  
If she could know he did want her. . .  
  
"God," the girl whispered under her breath, "I am not thinking about this. I haven't even had him for two whole days. What kind of girl does that make me?"  
  
Kagome rinsed herself quickly and turned off the shower, finding that it had lost most of its appeal. Her wandering thoughts had left her with too much nervous energy the beginnings of a familiar bittersweet tension between her thighs. She tried her best not to pay attention to it while she dried herself and pulled on her robe. 'My own fault for letting my mind get away from me like that.  
  
'Too bad. It had the makings to be a pretty good daydream, too.' Next, he might have kissed her. She wondered what he kissed like. Was he aggressive? Or was he gentle? She decided that he was probably a little of both. She could see how he might start out gentle, then grow more demanding as he went, until he was kissing her ruthlessly. He would touch her, but he would have to be careful because of his claws. A claw could touch her lightly, moving over her skin so she could feel it, but not hard enough to draw blood. The idea made her shiver. What would that feel like? To have him touch her ever-so delicately with his claws, or his fangs? She tried to imagine it. The way those claws would feel tracing patterns on her ribs, or her hips, or her face. How his sharp teeth would feel as they grazed her lips or her earlobe, or her collarbone.  
  
She went to her room, and shut the door behind her. 'Why am I thinking this?' she asked herself. 'It's silly.' Kagome tried to derail this train of thought as she found her brush and pulled it through her wet black hair. 'Hm. Maybe I could brush his hair.' That could hardly be construed as abusing him. Even if he might object, it would still be fun to play with his hair, and 'everyone' like having their hair brushed. She might be able to scratch his ears, too. They were so soft, just like a real dog's ear.  
  
'I wonder if they're sensitive?'  
  
Finally accepting the inevitable, she set down her brush, closed her eyes, and gave in to her fantasy. Almost immediately, the girl's imagination supplied her with a new image of the hanyou, with firelight dancing across his skin and casting reddish shadows on his pale tresses. Her memory supplied her with the feeling of that beautiful, silky hair gliding through her fingers. Letting her mind take her where it would, she wasn't surprised when her imaginary Inuyasha tilted her chin up and kissed her, nor when he abandoned her lips to leave a trail of playful nibbles and kisses down her throat.  
  
Kagome barely heard her door open. Huffing, she opened her eyes, and started to turn to find out what whoever it was wanted. She was shocked when strong arms caught her before she could face their owner. She was pulled back against a firm body, which seemed to curl around her. Her head came to rest against a shoulder, and white hair drifted before her eyes.  
  
This was impossible. She'd just been fantasizing. She didn't really want. . . did she? Did she really want Inuyasha? He flattened the palm of one hand against her belly, pulling her yet closer. She fit as though he'd been made for her. Her breath quickened at the thought. How else might they fit together well?  
  
Inuyasha nuzzled her neck, tracing the line of her throat from clavicle to ear. When he laid his mouth against the corner of her jaw, her mind went blank. She felt more than heard the rumble that came from his chest. He was growling, or. . . purring. The air around her seemed suddenly electric. Her whole body tingled with it, and she though that this must be what it felt like right before someone was struck by lightning.  
  
Kagome turned her head to see the hanyou's face, to make sure he was really there.  
  
Her heart broke when she saw the distant look in his eyes, the blank expression he wore.  
  
"What was that for?" Kagome demanded, ripping herself free of his hold. The words did not come out quite as she meant them to, but she didn't care. He didn't even look as though he were in the same room with her. His mind was a million miles away.  
  
"Wha--" Inuyasha pulled back, yellow eyes wide in confusion. "I'm designed to--"  
  
"Well who said I wanted you to?" the girl snapped. Her face heated and she was sure she was turning bright red, because she had wanted him to very much.  
  
"I thought. . ." he false-started, then clamped his jaw shut, took a deep breath, and began again. "I assumed that you would wish my services since you seemed aroused."  
  
For a moment Kagome gaped at what he said. He thought he would want his services because she seemed aroused. It was such a sterile, heartless way to say it. And how did he know that, anyway? When she recovered, she whispered, "Get out."  
  
"What did I--"  
  
"Get out!" This time she shouted it. "Now. I don't want something fake!" Inuyasha made a face as though she had struck him. He recovered quickly, though, replacing his scowl, his hands flexing into angry fists.  
  
"Fine!" he shouted back, turning on his heel and stalking out of Kagome's room. He slammed the door behind himself so hard it flew back open. She looked down at her own hands, which were shaking uncontrollably. Her anger faded to a dull sense of hurt.  
  
"I want it to be real."  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: So what do you think of that? You didn't really think they were going to sleep together, did you? It's a little early for that. And now there is a little more complication for the romantic plot. Communication just isn't these two kids strong suit, is it?  
  
As always, I'd love to know what my readers think.  
  
Until next time. 


	7. False Hope

A/N: Thanks for the reviews. I really enjoy reading them, and I was wondering how people would respond to the last chapter.  
  
Actually, I have read The Silver Metal Lover. Twice. I love that book. I wasn't thinking of it when I started writing this story, but I did notice some similarities once I got going.  
  
So I realize that this is not an entirely original idea (I could name a few other stories that also share some of the same elements, including the movie, Bladerunner), but I hope that I can do something relatively fresh with a premise that is, if not completely new, at least not stale.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions.  
  
It was impossible for a youkai to feel thwarted. A youkai could not feel rejected, or hurt, or angry. 'It' would not be affected in the least by the whims of 'its' human master. A machine, whose brain was made up of silicon and wire, with data relays instead of nerve synapses, could not truly experience any emotions. It could not want anything, and since it had no desires, it could not be disappointed when its desires came to nothing. Inuyasha knew these things, and a hanyou was just some twisted f*ck's attempt to make a better youkai.  
  
So why the hell did he 'want' to rip something to shreds with his claws?  
  
Why did Kagome's words hurt so damn much?  
  
"I don't want something fake." The hanyou winced at the memory. He'd thought. . . but it didn't matter what he'd thought, did it? Kagome had seemed to believe the old hag when she said he could feel, and she'd saved him from being dismantled presumably for that reason. The girl was crazy, of course, but it had seemed as though she wanted to believe youkai could be at least almost real. The truth stung. She thought he was 'fake.'  
  
'Maybe she's more like Kikyo than I thought.'  
  
Inuyasha found himself in the living room and suddenly realized he didn't have anywhere to go from here. The girl owned him, so he could not leave. And he didn't want to suspend his functions.  
  
There was that word again. Want. A youkai ought not to be able to want because all their responses were just programmed into them. While hanyou were supposed to be different, they were still essentially the same thing. Weren't they?  
  
If someone knew the answer to that, they had never bothered to share it with him. Kikyo hadn't known, that was certain. She had been part of an arrangement with the company that made him, chosen as a product tester before they put hanyou into market production. They hadn't told her anything about the differences between hanyou and youkai, that would have spoiled the experiment.  
  
He could still remember her voice with digital clarity.  
  
"You cannot love me," she said, tears forming in her eyes but refusing to fall. "You cannot 'love.' You're nothing. A machine. A puppet. You cannot love."  
  
He hadn't been able to say anything to that. Supposedly she had loved him, and she had known how he 'felt' about her. Inuyasha had never known what had brought about that outburst, but it was the last thing she said to him. "You cannot love."  
  
She was right, wasn't she? But if she was, how come just the memory stung. How come he still felt? Kagome had said something about Shippo believing he was scared. Was that the answer? Was he just believing his own false emotions? If that was it, whoever had come up with that one should be put on the list of The World's Most Sadistic Bastards.  
  
Inuyasha's eyes fell on Kikyo's love seat, waiting for morning when Kagome would decide whether or not she wanted to keep it. The hanyou flexed his claws and growled. It would do.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Sesshomaru stepped out of the back of the storage truck, blinking to focus his eyes to the new light, and took in his surroundings. Neatly tended sweeps of lawn rolled away from a red cobbled driveway. Flowerbeds flanked the front door to his new mistress's house, which was more compound than mansion, and a far cry from his previous owner's penthouse suite. Rows of picture windows gave a broken view of the house's interiors, mostly of well furnished rooms painted in a soothing off-white.  
  
The whole scene was lit up by security lights, and surveillance youkai made to look like owls and bats glided through their rounds, or perched strategically in ornamental trees. Security youkai wearing the shapes of wolves roamed around the grounds. Sesshomaru barely deigned to notice the youkai; they were so far inferior to him that comparison was laughable. He alone would be better equipped to protect his charge than a whole army of these barely-sentient toys. However, few people seemed to remember that he was designed to fulfill that role.  
  
'I wonder if all this is necessary, or if the master of the house is simply paranoid,' the youkai thought as he attempted to smooth some of the wrinkles out of the rumpled suit he wore. He would have preferred to change his clothes, but unfortunately, this was all that his last owner had sent with him.  
  
"This way," the truck driver commanded him, but Sesshomaru didn't pay him any attention. It wasn't as though the man owned him, and there was nothing in his codes that required him to obey delivery boys. Instead he continued to make himself as presentable as the circumstances allowed, something which his makers had included as part of his secondary programming, and watched out of the corner of his vision as figures moved behind two of the picture windows. One was probably is new mistress. Who was the other? A servant, perhaps? Doubtful, as both figures had appeared to be human. He would probably be required to familiarize himself with the other members of the household.  
  
When he was satisfied with that his suit was in the best state in would reach without a dry cleaner, he strode up the steps toward the front door, ignoring the livid truck driver as he brushed the man out of his way. One clawed hand extended to ring the bell, but the door opened before Sesshomaru touched it.  
  
The person Sesshomaru found himself facing was not his new owner. She was a girl, probably about thirteen or fourteen, and wearing her pajamas--a white tanktop and a pair of light blue pants patterned with pink flowers. There was a bandage on one of the girl's wrists, and a fading bruise shadowed her left eye. 'How did she get those?' She regarded Sesshomaru with unabashed curiosity, seemly completely unconcerned with her state of undress. What she made of him was harder to tell. She wasn't afraid of him, that much was clear. Not that she should be, but many people were afraid of him nonetheless. Most of his past owners included. He had half suspected his last owner wouldn't give him to her sister, but return him to his manufacturer to be dismantled.  
  
The girl met his scrutiny with wide, dark eyes, then smiled for no reason at all the youkai could fathom. What was this girl doing here? And where was his new owner?  
  
"Go to bed, Rin," a raspy, female voice said, answering Sesshomaru's unspoken question. The voice belonged to a woman who stood near the top of an opulent flight of stairs, the kind people put in the foyer to let other people know how rich they were. This woman was somewhat taller and rounder than his last mistress, but the resemblance was there. She had the same soft black hair, though hers was cut short, and the same almond shaped dusky eyes. She was a little younger, and she wore fewer cosmetics, so the dark rings under her eyes were visible. Her posture was unnaturally relaxed, as though her bones failed to hold together in the proper way.  
  
The girl backed up a few step, but didn't leave. She fixed a blank gaze on the woman who was, presumably, her mother. That would make her the 'daughter' which his last mistress had spoken off.  
  
"Rin," the woman said again, threateningly, a frown knotting her brow.  
  
This time the girl did leave. She still showed no sign of fear. Sesshomaru watched her go until she ducked around a corner and disappeared.  
  
"Don't mind her," the woman said, drawing the youkai's attention. "She is not well."  
  
"Madame," Sesshomaru said noncommentally. The woman wore a red silk robe patterned with silver bamboo stalks, and black lingerie underneath, not entirely hidden by her robe. He guessed the effect was meant to be alluring. He chose not to respond; if she wanted play-acting she could very well ask for it.  
  
"Call me Ryoko," she told him, swaying as she descended the stairs. "Madame sounds so formal, and it makes me feel old." As she approached him, she raked him over with her eyes, taking in his long silver hair, pointed ears, the marks on his cheeks.  
  
"You're very well made," she murmured when she stood only a few feet away from him. "I wonder why my sister got rid of you?"  
  
"I believe she tired of youkai," Sesshomaru told her, his tone disinterested.  
  
Ryoko laughed. "My good luck then. I'm tired of men."  
  
Sesshomaru chose not to answer that and allowed himself to be led upstairs to a bedroom. His first impression was of sloppy house keeping. Various articles--mostly clothing, though he also spotted an umbrella, some romance novels, and a water pipe--littered the ground, and any other relatively horizontal surface. A pair of panty hose hung from the back of the vanity chair, and an open tube of mascara was leaving a stain on the eggshell carpet. Lipstick, nail polish, and a vibrator shared the nightstand with the pedestal to a cordless phone. The phone itself was nowhere to be seen.  
  
It was only after he became accustomed to the rooms messy state that Sesshomaru noticed that nearly everything was expensive. Even the nail polish was the most expensive brand out there. Most of the clothing, which was left lying out so thoughtlessly, was designer. The labels and tags baring fashionable names and attached to things which their owner obviously didn't care about one way or the other stated clearly that money really was no object.  
  
He only had a moment to register this before finding his mistress pressed against his chest, her fingernails dragging lightly over the back of his neck while her lips left kisses on his jaw. Sesshomaru closed his eyes and wrapped an arm around her, drawing her in closer. 'Back to the game.'  
  
*~*~*  
  
When she was through with him, Ryoko dismissed him with a wave of her hand while she lit a cigarette with the other. "There's a room at the end of the hall for you to use. Last door on the left."  
  
Realizing his business with his mistress was done for the night, Sesshomaru quickly dressed and left. The smell of her cigarette followed him, burning his sensitive nose. He glanced down the hall and saw the room she had given him. The door was open, revealing what looked like a guest bedroom. For a moment the youkai wondered at the logic of this before concluding that it was very likely that the woman would want him to have his own room for when her husband returned. For all that her own room was practically drowning in feminine things, he had still smelled the man she shared it with sometimes, and his clothes had been in the closet.  
  
She hadn't told him that he had to go to his room, though, so there was nothing requiring him to. After another instant of deliberation, he walked back down the stairs and studied his new home.  
  
Like the master bedroom, everything he saw spoke of money. The living room furniture was soft leather. Crystal and antique china were displayed in glass cases. Both paintings and wall hangings were done by artists who were either old and famous, or trendy and famous. The Monet in the largest of the three dining rooms was an original, and the decor had been chosen to match the glowing pastels of the impressionistic water lilies.  
  
The kitchen was less extravagant than the rest of the house, but still very well appointed. The counter-tops were all marble. The refrigerator was stainless steel, as were the eight burner range and twin ovens.  
  
It was in the kitchen, sitting on a marble counter-top, that Sesshomaru found Rin. The girl was still in her pajamas, and was eating a bowl of some marshmallow filled, sugar coated breakfast cereal. The box and the milk were still resting on the counter next to her. The youkai watched as the girl shoveled her cereal into her mouth and kicked her feet in the air.  
  
When she saw him, Rin motioned with her elbow to the box beside her.  
  
"I don't need to eat," Sesshomaru told her without inflection. The girl's expression fell at his words and she sighed sadly. Her black eye once again caught his attention. It had faded to a yellowish green, so it must have been fairly old. There were other bruises, too, on her arms, and one at the juncture of her neck, partially hidden by her tanktop. They were all old and nearly gone. The bandage on her wrist drew his attention as well. It was taped tightly, and the faint smell of antiseptic was apparent to the youkai. That was newer than the bruises.  
  
"What happened?" Sesshomaru wasn't sure why he asked that. He hadn't even realized he was going to. But looking at her, he found he wanted to know.  
  
The girl looked up, and for a long moment just met his cold golden gaze. Then, without warning, she smiled. Sesshomaru did not know what to make of this.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Alright, so I may have lied about how dark Sesshomaru's subplot was going to get. I wasn't really sure myself until I started writing it. Anyway, I bumped up Rin's age, but I don't plan to put any real Sess/Rin in this because I don't think she's really old enough, and Sesshomaru is still quite a ways away from having a real intimate relationship. The reason I bumped up Rin's age was because I felt really bad about the idea of putting a little kid through the stuff I'm putting Rin through. In fact, I still feel kind of bad about it. . .  
  
I will probably change the rating on this story soon. I haven't actually decided yet if there will be any lemon in here, or if I'll keep the citrus strictly lime, but If you haven't noticed, some of the themes are getting a little mature, and with the addition of Rin's mother I'm going to be slipping in some drug references as well. What's more, I'm starting to have some trouble censoring my language.  
  
Until next time, I'm not a mind reader, so please review. Thanks again. 


	8. Along Came A Spider

A/N: I have more than seventy reviews now! And I'm on four favorite authors lists! And I've started stumbling across "Synthetic Emotions" on favorite stories lists! Thank you all. I love feedback, and I love knowing that people are actually enjoying my writing. I realize that there are some stories with hundreds of reviews, but who cares? I have more than seventy, and that's more than enough to make me happy. To everyone who reviewed, you all kick ass. Thank you.  
  
Alright. I've got that out of my system now.  
  
Before getting on with the story, I'd like to answer a question about the level of technology in this reality. The easiest answer is to say that this world is precisely as technologically advanced as I need it to be in general. If I need something, I'll invent it, like the perpetual battery. I realize that this answer is pretty cheap, but its the truth.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Kagome's alarm went off at six-fifteen in the morning. The girl flailed blindly for the snooze button and felt her hand connect with the clock. The buzzer stopped, either because she'd found the blessed snooze button, or because she'd accidentally turned the alarm off. Kagome sighed into her pillow, mentally grumbling about the evil of whoever had made mornings so early.  
  
A few minutes passed, and the she began to wonder if her alarm would go off again if she fell back asleep. Part of her didn't care. Sleep was a warm, inviting weight, ready to pull her back down. . .  
  
The clock went off again, starting Kagome out of her doze. She rolled over on her back, blinking at the light that came in through the curtains, then reset her alarm for the next morning. After another moment of stretching, she stood up and began her morning routine. Step one, get up. Check. Step two, get dressed. Yawning into the back of her hand, Kagome began searching through the boxes she had yet to unpack for something to wear. Her work clothes were at the bottom of the box, and needed to be ironed, so she put her robe back on instead. She'd wait to get dressed until after breakfast.  
  
Step three, coffee.  
  
Kagome yawned again, then left to find the coffee maker, which ought to have been in a box in the kitchen. She stopped when she saw the living room.  
  
Pieces of fluffy white stuffing covered the carpet, along with bits of wood and metal. Kagome didn't identify the mess until she caught sight of a torn shred of fabric patterned in green and blue, then she remembered Kikyo's love seat. The girl blinked, shook her head, and tried to process what her still sleep fogged brain was being told by her dropping eyes. Kikyo's love seat had been reduced to scraps no bigger than her hands, and sitting cross legged in the middle of the mess was Inuyasha. He looked like he was sleeping, but one ear was trained on her.  
  
'I'm not sure I'm ready to deal with this,' Kagome thought, blurrily. 'Maybe I should come back after I get my coffee. . .' Then the scene sunk in.  
  
"Inuyasha!" Kagome shouted, suddenly awake. "What happened"  
  
The hanyou's gold eyes snapped open. "What?"  
  
"What did you do?" the girl demanded, gesturing at the ruined furniture. "Did the chair look at you funny?"  
  
"Feh," Inuyasha grunted, looking away and pointedly not answering her question.  
  
"I asked what happened," Kagome said. The memory of the night before chose that moment to return to her, making her uncomfortable, but she didn't back down. "Tell me what happened."  
  
"I was angry," Inuyasha said flatly, taking Kagome of her guard. He had to answer her, so he did. She swallowed hard, even more uncomfortable than she had been. She didn't like telling him what to do; it made her feel a little queasy. Again she thought of the night before, and what he would have done had she wanted him to. The queasy feeling turned into a sick churning.  
  
"Why were you angry?" she asked, softer. He opened him mouth, but she continued, cutting him off. "Don't tell me if you don't want to."  
  
"You 'are' crazy," the Companion youkai told her, looking away.  
  
*~*~*  
  
By the time Kagome felt human she and Inuyasha seemed to have reached an unspoken consensus to pretend the night before had never happened. The girl tried to brush the memory of it aside until a more convenient time. It was difficult, though. Because she didn't want to think about it, her brain kept returning to it. The night before, he would have slept with her. He didn't want to, though. How could he? They'd only met a day and a half ago. How could he want to sleep with someone he'd only known for a day and a half? Of course, she had only known him for a day and a half too, and she had been thinking about just that. . . but that was a fantasy. It didn't have any baring on real life. 'Right?'  
  
'Maybe I am crazy,' Kagome thought, sipping her second cup of coffee.  
  
"Leave me alone!" Shippo's young voice piped, breaking into Kagome's thoughts.  
  
"I didn't do anything to you," Inuyasha said harshly. "Quit whining."  
  
Shippo ran into the kitchen and leapt into Kagome's arms. His blue- green eyes were wide. His bushy tail was twitching. His little mouth was set in a cute frown. "Kagome," he whined, "Inuyasha hit me!"  
  
"Inuyasha," Kagome said, looking up to see him stalking into the kitchen after the little fox youkai. He glared at Shippo, then scowled at Kagome.  
  
"Don't listen to him. He deserved it." The hanyou protested. "He bit me first."  
  
Kagome blinked. 'How can he possibly claim he doesn't feel?' she wondered, looking from one of her youkai to the other, then back. He had admitted to being angry when she'd made him tell her why he tore apart Kikyo's chair. The girl could not suppress a small thrill of triumph. He did feel, which meant she was not crazy. But, what about Shippo? The doll- like youkai was still growling at Inuyasha; cute and possessive, just like a little girl would want. But why did he bite Inuyasha if she wasn't there to see it?  
  
"I don't have time for this," she told them both, filing her curiosity away for a later time. "I'm already running behind, and I have to be out of here by eight." Shippo clung to Kagome's shoulder unhappily, obviously unsatisfied with her reaction. She hadn't protected him from the aggressive hanyou or anything.  
  
"Where are we going?" Inuyasha asked, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest.  
  
"I am going to work. You two are staying right here," Kagome clarified. "I can't have you hovering."  
  
"I don't think so. What if some idiot tries to take advantage of you without me there?"  
  
"Inuyasha, I appreciate your concern, but-"  
  
"Who said anything about concern," Inuyasha interrupted, eyes flaring. "I am programmed to protect my owner, and I have every intention of doing just that. 'Concern' doesn't enter into it."  
  
Kagome fought the urge to smack the hanyou across his sullen face. Only the knowledge that she'd hurt her hand more than him held her back. "Well, I don't care. You're staying here. That's final."  
  
"I am going. I told you, I am programmed to protect you." An arrogant smirk replaced his scowl.  
  
"You have to do what I say," the girl argued.  
  
"Unless it contradicts with my programming. My makers made sure to give me priorities."  
  
"Huh?" Kagome stared at the hanyou. She knew that youkai would disobey their masters in order to protect them, but this stretched the limits on that particular loophole. Companion youkai didn't follow their owners wherever they went. Most of them stayed put while their masters were away.  
  
Evidently, hanyou had more flexibility than normal youkai when it came to interpreting their commands.  
  
*~*~*  
  
It had been a surprise when that hanyou had reactivated two days before. Naraku did not like surprises. They had a way of interfering with his carefully laid schemes, tangling his webs. This particular hanyou could tangle his webs far too much for comfort. He could potentially undo more work than he could even fathom with his limited capabilities. So small. So petty and stupid, but also so dangerous. Naraku had thought him taken care of long ago.  
  
However, Naraku prided himself on never wasting an opportunity, and as lethal as this hanyou could be to his plans, he also provided new possibilities. Naraku had to consider how to respond to this. He had to examine every one of his options. Otherwise, he might miss something.  
  
Naraku did not waste. He had saved countless youkai from going to scrap on the chance that they might prove useful to him. He had saved Kanna, whose brain functions were completely blank so far as her creators had been able to tell, and discovered in her empty head the strangest shadow of a consciousness. He had known then that she would prove useful eventually. He just didn't know how. He had also saved and restored Kagura, who would be just another rogue youkai to be destroyed or refurbished. She was a powerful military model, and much as her distorted nature balked at service, she had shown herself to be an affective warrior when violence was necessary. He had even managed to salvage most of Kohaku's personality, in case he should need a goad for that activist woman. So far Sango had been perfectly willing to work against the perversion of youkai without any encouragement, but still, one could never be too sure. . .  
  
Sango was in the palm of his hand. It was Inuyasha he had to worry about.  
  
In the end, it was Naraku's aversion to waste that offered the solution. The youkai stood slowly, and began the descent into the building's basement storage facilities. Somewhere down there, in the catacombs beneath Naraku's home, was a very illegal kind of youkai: a Replica. A youkai made not only to look and act like a specific human, but also programmed with that individual's actual brain patterns. After all, the human brain was nothing but a complex organic computer, all its information coded in chemical and electric signals. There was no reason why a youkai couldn't copy those signals.  
  
Even humans who supported the production of youkai had agreed that Replicas were unethical. Like cloning before it, Replication was strictly banned. Humans always reacted illogically when souls were brought into the mix. Surely a Replica would be nothing but a soulless mirror.  
  
The florescent lights turned on automatically at Naraku's approach, bathing the hall in cold, flickering white light. In the storage unit before him rested the body of a what appeared to be a young woman. She was tall and slim, with supple limbs and long, dark hair. Her eyes were closed, and her lovely face was set in a chilly mask. Even in repose her mouth was found itself a slight frown, as though that expression came most naturally to her. Her skin was stark, flawlessly pale, with a faint satin sheen in the harsh light, belying her humanity.  
  
Naraku smiled at the Replica. He hardly remembered why he had kept her anymore. Once she had factored into his plans, but that had changed with other developments, and her importance had dwindled until he had decided to stick her in storage. Now she would have the chance to prove useful again.  
  
He chuckled as he pulled the web into a new shape to accommodate these most recent changes.  
  
"Time to wake up, Kikyo."  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Holy crap, I accidentally stumbled back onto the plot! Took me long enough.  
  
Anyway, much as a part of me would rather leave the Tweaky One (read as Kikyo) dead, she just plays too big a part in Kagome and Inuyasha relationship to leave out. I don't really hate Kikyo. I just think she's a psychopath when she's running around undead.  
  
And sorry it took so long to update. I meant to do it Wednesday, but instead I went all delinquent and spent 6 ½ hours watching cartoons. Don't ask. I'll try to update again this weekend, and at least once more during the week, but I will probably have something like 50 plus hours of work, so I make no guarantees.  
  
Be kind and review. Until next time. 


	9. My Problems

A/N: I changed the rating, as most of you have probably noticed. Thanks for the reviews, everyone. They really make my day.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Kagome worked as a waitress in a fashionable cafe downtown. It was the sort of place where large parties show up for brunch, consume prodigious amounts of champagne, and leave huge tips so their servers will forgive them for being loud, obnoxious, and making special orders. Once upon a time Kikyo had been part of such parties. She rarely drank, but she would sit and watch her friends while she sipped her black tea and nibbled at her strawberry blitz. She would smile while she watched them, a very small, almost melancholy smile. Inuyasha tried not to remember that smile as he took up a position where he could easily see all of Kagome's area, and ignored the girl as she tried to smooth his presence over with her boss.  
  
Kagome looked a little like Kikyo, though Kikyo would never have allowed herself to be reduced to waiting tables to make a living. Kikyo would have been appalled by the concept. She had worked as an 'executive assistant' at Inutaiyoukai, and had every intention of becoming a prominent businesswoman. She tended to pour every ounce of energy into that goal, to the exclusion of all else.  
  
Kagome seemed happier with her choice. Inuyasha doubted this girl would ever cry herself to sleep over her choices. Kikyo had. Kikyo had more than once cried herself sick while she was out of the eyes of the world, because she was nothing but a glorified secretary. Inuyasha watched as Kagome smiled a dazzling, honest smile at one of her co-workers and tied a neat white half-apron over her short black skirt. Her co-worker, a young man with bleached hair and painted nails, returned her smile, offering some comment or another about customers, then stuck out his tongue.  
  
Kagome laughed, and Inuyasha's ears swiveled toward the sound. Kikyo had never laughed like that. Kikyo had hardly laughed at all, and when she did it was usually a restrained sound deep in her throat.  
  
For some reason, Inuyasha had been doing this all morning. He couldn't help it. He kept thinking of Kagome, and Kikyo, and he kept comparing the two. He supposed it was natural to compare the two. They were the only two people he had ever belonged to. Of course he would compare the two. . . but he was fairly sure it was more than that.  
  
Maybe it was because they had both rejected him.  
  
That thought made him angry, and something else. He didn't know what that something else was, but it felt as though he were shrinking, even though he was precisely the same size he'd been since the day he was activated. He focused on the anger. Anger was easier, and less uncomfortable.  
  
The cafe opened at eight, and soon men and woman, and occasionally their youkai, been arriving. Inuyasha watched as Kagome moved among them, taking orders for various European coffees topped with whipped cream and grated cinnamon. She smiled at her customers, seeming to enjoy them. This was a little beyond the hanyou. How could someone enjoy waiting on others like that? But Kagome's expression wasn't forced at all as she distributed the cappuccinos and lattes, or balanced trays of omelets and blueberry crepes with side orders of bacon and toast.  
  
She moved gracefully, more so than he would like to admit. She wasn't elegant like Kikyo. She was energetic and natural. Vivacious, even, as she gently rebuffed a male customer's advances. She was just plain alive.  
  
And Kikyo was dead. If she hadn't turned him off, he would have been able to protect her. . . Somehow, Inuyasha could put anger behind that thought. It just made him feel empty. . .  
  
The hanyou shook his head. 'It doesn't matter now,' he told himself firmly. "It's passed.' He turned his attention more firmly to Kagome, and felt a growl begin in his throat as he watched her once again dealing with the same customer, still flirting with her shamelessly. The man wasn't actually trying anything, so he couldn't beat him to a bloody pulp, but something should be done about this.  
  
Inuyasha was considering the best course of action to take with this dense Romeo when he noticed someone else. Another man was sitting in the other waiter's section of the cafe, but he was staring at Kagome with unwavering eyes. He was a lanky young man, maybe twenty or so, with obsidian hair and brown eyes. Inuyasha didn't like the smell of arousal coming off of him, nor the heat in his gaze. The hanyou's growl changed pitch, becoming deep and threatening.  
  
Without taking his attention of the young man, Inuyasha motioned Kagome over with his hand. He felt Kagome's glare, but didn't acknowledge it. After a moment, she hissed at him in passing. "Do you think you can make me come just by wiggling your fingers?"  
  
"I know I could, but you said no," Inuyasha retorted without thinking. It took him a moment to realize what he'd said, and when it sunk in he finally tore his eyes off Kagome's (other) watcher and met the girl's shocked and irate expression. That was as close as they'd come to talking about the events of the previous night.  
  
"Just get your ass over here," the Companion youkai said uncomfortably.  
  
Kagome shook off her shock and she fixed Inuyasha with a look that would have frozen mercury, but she still walked over to where he was leaning.  
  
"What do you want?" she asked sharply, wiping her hands on her apron. "I don't have time to play with you." "Do you know that bastard?" he asked her, pointing with a jerk of his chin.  
  
Kagome followed his motion, and her furious expression faltered. "Not again," she muttered, then louder, "Don't worry about him Inuyasha. He's just an ex. I'll deal with him."  
  
"Don't. He's been watching you," the hanyou warned. He really didn't like the guy now. His scent coming from him had shifted dangerously when he saw Kagome and Inuyasha talking. The new sharp anger smell had not diminished his arousal. If anything, it had amplified it.  
  
"You've been watching me, too," Kagome shot back. Of course, she couldn't smell what Inuyasha did.  
  
"Believe me, I don't want the same thing he does."  
  
"I said, I'll deal with Eiji," the girl said coldly, once again drawing all Inuyasha's attention to her.  
  
'Did I say something wrong?' he wondered, seeing her stern face, but smelling a pang of sadness. This girl made no sense whatsoever.  
  
"Excuse me, but I have to get back to work," she finished, then hurried away to apologize to an elderly couple for the wait. Within seconds her smile was back, though it was not as honest, and every so often her eyes would dart nervously to look at Eiji. The young man, for his part, never looked away from her. What the hell did he want?  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kagome was suddenly finding it harder to be cheerful for the customers. Inuyasha was bad enough, with his impassive, molten gold eyes that blinked somewhat less than would have been normal in a human, but Eiji's feverish gaze was quickly fraying her nerves. What the did he want? Didn't the guy take a hint?  
  
Shortly after their break up he'd done this, just shown up at her work or at her home from time to time. Usually he didn't even talk to her, he'd just stare at her for while, then leave. Occasionally he'd ask her to come back to him. Her answer was always a resounding no. They were finished. He would just have to accept it.  
  
It had been a month and a half since she'd last seen him. She had hoped he had finally figured it out.  
  
Eiji caught her glancing at him and grinned. Kagome shivered, and made her decision to tell him to leave.  
  
But he beat her to it. Before she could finish delivering her order, she threw a couple of wadded bills on the table and left. The girl covertly watched him depart, and prayed that this was the end of it. Inuyasha saw Eiji's departure as well, and made no attempt to hide it. When the boy was out of sight, he looked at Kagome.  
  
'Oh, blast him,' Kagome thought, recalling what he'd said. He was such an asshole. How could he make a comment like that? Was he making fun of her, because she'd been thinking of him like that? 'I can think whatever I like. Not that I see any reason to think of an insensitive ass like him. . . even if he would be beautiful in the shower.'  
  
"Ah, miss?"  
  
Kagome snapped out of her introspection, seeing that the flirty-man was waving her back over to his table. Pushing aside her thoughts, she went back to work.  
  
*~*~*  
  
That afternoon, Kagome's feet hurt. It was the curse of waitressing, and she still had to walk most of the way home. At least work was done for the day, and she had eighteen glorious hours until she had to go back. Too bad half of them would be spent sleeping, and most of the rest would be devoted to unpacking.  
  
"Hey," Inuyasha called after her as she left.  
  
"What?" the girl snapped when he caught up.  
  
"Feh," was his reply. He didn't say anything else, just walked beside her.  
  
After a two and a half blocks of silence, Kagome declared, "You are not coming to work with me tomorrow."  
  
"And how are you going to stop me?" he asked. "There's no way I'm letting you go by yourself with that Eiji pervert showing up."  
  
"Eiji is not a pervert, he's just my ex-boyfriend."  
  
The hanyou gave her a quizzical look. "Is that what you think?"  
  
"What else would he be?" she asked. How would he know if Eiji was a pervert, after all? He was just having some problems getting over the break up. That was it. Eventually, he'd get it through his thick skull that she and him hadn't really had a chance from the beginning, and he'd get on with his life.  
  
Inuyasha offered no explanation, only shook his head disbelieving.  
  
Kagome sighed, deciding not to pay any more attention to the hanyou. "Just don't trust him," Inuyasha said when Kagome thought the conversation was done.  
  
"What makes you say that now?"  
  
"He's coming this way," he told her.  
  
"How do you know that?" the girl demanded, growing tired of his cryptic information.  
  
"And he smells like alcohol," the dog hanyou added, and Kagome remembered one of the first things she had heard him say.  
  
'I know you're there, bitch. I can smell you.'  
  
Before Kagome could pursue that thought, Eiji appeared before them. And Inuyasha was right; he reeked of alcohol. The girl could smell it from more than three yards away.  
  
"So, Kagome, is this the toy you've replaced me with?" the young man yelled at her, his words unclear. He staggered toward her, and Kagome covered her nose. 'God, has he been bathing in rum?'  
  
"Get behind me, Kagome," Inuyasha ordered her.  
  
"Yeah, Kagome," Eiji said, snorting a chuckle. "Hide behind your doll."  
  
Kagome looked from Eiji to Inuyasha. Inuyasha looked as though he thought she was about to be attacked by a horde of Unregistered youkai. His fangs were bared, making him look less human, and his dog-ears were laid flat against his skull. He raised his hands, knuckles cracking as he took a defensive stance. Eiji was wobbling forward, obviously drunk. He did not make a very imposing figure, with his eyes bloodshot and his black hair a mess.  
  
"Inuyasha, don't," Kagome said, stepping in front of her hanyou and putting her back to Eiji. "I will deal with this."  
  
"Kagome. . ." Inuyasha said, uncertain for an instant, then angry. "Kagome- -"  
  
"That's it bitch, deal with your own problems," Eiji slurred, his voice suddenly in her ear, his breath on her cheek. He took a fistful of her hair, and yanked back brutally. There was a 'snick' sound, and from the corner of her eye, Kagome saw metal.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Sorry people, but that's the end. There'd be more, but I have to be at work in half and hour. I'll write the next chapter as quick as I can, but I have a split shift today, so it probably won't be up until at least Wednesday. Sorry again. Also, please forgive any grammar errors. I spellchecked, but didn't have time to proof read this.  
  
Until next time (which hopefully won't be too far off). 


	10. More Special Features

A/N: One hundred reviews (and there was much rejoicing, hooray).  
  
Disclaimer: I still don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
The glint of metal resolved into a butterfly knife held far too close to Kagome's skin. She began to shiver, anticipating contact with the blade. She rolled her eyes far back, trying to get a better view of the man who held her. She couldn't see him, but she could feel his breath, stinking with whatever he'd been drinking before he caught her. She could see his hand, holding the knife.  
  
"Don't move, Kagome," Inuyasha said, his harsh voice suddenly more commanding. His eyes were fixed on Eiji, and the girl could only guess that he had murder on his mind. His lips had peeled back from his sharp fangs, and an audible growl rumbled in his chest.  
  
'Like a guard dog or something. . .' Kagome thought. She tried to do as he said.  
  
"Send your pet home," Eiji told Kagome and wrenched her back roughly. She gritted her teeth against the pain in her scalp.  
  
"Inuyasha. . ." she said, not knowing what she intended to tell him. The look he gave her held her tongue. She remembered him telling her again and again that he was designed to protect, and Kaede suggesting that he would be useful if something were to happen to her. Well this qualified as 'something.' What was he waiting for?  
  
"Mind your own business, puppet," Eiji snapped. "This is between your owner and me. . . you didn't actually fuck this doll, did you Kag? He's not real, you know."  
  
"Not jealous, are you?" Inuyasha said before Kagome could say anything. He was watching Eiji intently. "That's pretty sad, being jealous of someone who isn't even real. Just a machine. You get jealous of her hair dryer, too? No wonder she left you."  
  
"Inu--" the girl began. She could hardly believe her ears.  
  
"Shut up," the man behind her growled at her, then to the hanyou, "Of course I'm not jealous. It just proves what kind of a slut she is, with her little playthings and all."  
  
Inuyasha leaned forward slightly, and an arrogant smirk replacing his snarl. "If she were a slut," he said calmly, "she would have slept with you."  
  
He was baiting Eiji! Was he insane? He was going to get her killed. Companion youkai were not supposed to get their owners killed.  
  
"Get out of here now, and I'll let you live," the hanyou continued, his smirk gone as quickly as it had appeared.  
  
"Don't threaten me," Eiji shouted. "I'm the one with the knife and the girl. You can't threaten me. I might decide to hurt her. And I you can't hurt me anyway. . . youkai can't hurt humans."  
  
"You think so?" Inuyasha asked, cracking his knuckles.  
  
Eiji loosened his grip on Kagome's hair as he considered the hanyou showing off his claws.  
  
Faster than Kagome could believe, Inuyasha struck, grabbing Eiji's knife hand and pulling Kagome free of him. Eiji shouted, then screamed as the hanyou lifted him easily and flung him toward the wall of a building. He hit the bricks with a sickening crack, then fell to the concrete of the side walk with a moist thud that made Kagome's lunch crawl up her throat. She stared at the still body, not really feeling anything. Somehow, her brain wasn't able to wrap around what had just happened. It was unbelievable. How could this happen? This sort of thing happened to other people, but not her.  
  
She looked up as something moved between her and the sight of Eiji lying broken on the pavement. She looked up and found herself face to face with a concerned hanyou. She heard his voice, but the meaning flitted past her. Suddenly it all sunk in, and all the fear and horror and relief she hadn't felt washed over her in a flood.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Inuyasha studied the girl carefully. She didn't appear hurt. There was that bruise on her neck, but he had given her that. He felt a momentary stab of guilt for that--she hadn't really deserved it--but pushed the emotion away. Feeling guilty wouldn't help Kagome. Right now his mind or his programming was screaming at him that she was his first priority. He would have to wait until later to regret.  
  
The girl's eyes were strangely blank, as though she wasn't seeing anything. It looked like she was staring right through him.  
  
"Hey, Kagome," he said gently, "are you okay?"  
  
Her eyes focused, shining as tears began to gather there. Then she flung herself at him, tangling her hands in his shirt front and sobbing into his chest.  
  
Not sure how to respond, Inuyasha wrapped his arms around her carefully, holding her shaking form in what he hoped was a soothing manner. "Shh," he whispered in her ear. "Shh, it's alright now. He can't hurt you."  
  
He could only assume that was an appropriate thing to say. Kagome didn't respond though. "Shh, I won't let anything happen to you," Inuyasha assured her. "It's okay, see?" As he spoke, he rubbed her back lightly. The girl continued to cry, her face buried in his shoulder. The force of her sobs shook her whole body. What the hell was he supposed to do when she was like this? Kikyo had never appreciated him trying to comfort her. . . not that he'd known what to do then, either, but she shied away from him whenever he tried, quickly winning control of her emotions. Kagome was different. He knew she wouldn't push him away for comforting her, but he didn't have a clue what to do. So he held her, and kept whispering the same reassurances to her along with stupid, meaningless phrases that humans used with each other when one of them was sad or scared.  
  
After a few minutes, Kagome began to still, then she looked up at him. Her face was blotchy, her eyes red and swollen, and she was still hiccoughing tiny sobs.  
  
"I'm okay, now," she told him hoarsely, and started to pull away.  
  
On impulse, Inuyasha held her closer instead of setting her on her feet, letting her feel that he was still there, before he released her.  
  
For a moment, she just stood there, clearly fighting to gather her wits and 'not' breakdown again. Then she took a deep breath, and looked at Eiji's body.  
  
"I suppose we should call the police." Inuyasha nodded in agreement.  
  
*~*~*  
  
When they were done dealing with the police, Inuyasha walked Kagome to her mother's house instead of back to her apartment. He was very quiet the whole time, only answering direct questions, and in the fewest words possible. Kagome half-wished he would talk, even if he just started arguing with her again. She didn't like her thoughts just then. She felt a little better having him there, but. . .  
  
But. Every time she let her mind wonder, it went straight back to Eiji, and at knife in his hand, and the way her hanyou had saved her. He had made killing Eiji look so easy. He 'was' dead, too. The police officer who'd taken her statement had been amazed by the force Eiji had hit the wall with. The young man's body had looked like that of a forty story jumper. "Pulverized," was the word the officer had used. Evidently most youkai weren't quite that strong.  
  
Inuyasha had made it look so easy, so though Eiji weighed nothing at all.  
  
Kagome couldn't be scared of the hanyou, though, even though she remembered Shippo warning her about how most of them were unstable. What kept replaying in her mind as she saw Eiji flying through the air was Inuyasha's voice, arrogantly stating that if he had wanted to kill her, she would be dead. He had proven that. Then he had comforted her. A part of her had expected him to push her away as soon as she collapsed in his arms, but he hadn't. Was this another one of his accessories? He was a fully loaded Companion model youkai, after all, so maybe he was designed to hold his owner while she cried hysterically. But if that were the case, why was he so bad at it?  
  
Well, not bad, really, just insecure. He had held her, which was more than enough since she hadn't expected anything. Yet he had acted like he didn't know what to do. If he was made to comfort his mistresses, wouldn't he know how to respond to hysterics?  
  
Eiji had tried to kill her. Or maybe he only wanted to scare her? Or maybe he was going to rape her? The last thought made her shiver. Like many women, Kagome wasn't sure if death was worse than rape. The thought of being totally out of control while someone else, someone stronger than you and willing to hurt you, did whatever they wanted to your body. The idea of not knowing if he'd kill you when he was done, or be 'merciful' and let you live terrified her; especially now that she'd had a taste of it.  
  
Only having Inuyasha with her made her feel safe as she made her way to the house she still thought of as home. Shippo would worry, but right now, Kagome wanted her Mom. She wanted to eat dinner with her family, and listen to her grandfather blather on about history, and how irreverent young people were, then she wanted to laugh at her brother while he bugged Inuyasha relentlessly. She needed to feel like she was home, not in her unfamiliar, unlived-in apartment.  
  
She wanted her own lump, narrow twin bed in her old room, not the wide, soft queen sized in her apartment.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kagome couldn't sleep.  
  
Her mother had insisted she sleep there tonight after she told her what had happened. Her mother has responded like a mother ought to, giving her cocoa after her brother was sent to bed, and nearly smothering Kagome in concern.  
  
It had been just what the girl needed.  
  
Her mother had also thanked Inuyasha for saving Kagome's life. The hanyou had responded with his typical 'Feh,' and said that it what he was made for. Kagome smiled a little at the memory. Inuyasha had looked absolutely sheepish as he made the excuse. Kagome doubted anyone had ever thanked him for anything. Why would they? He was a machine doing what he was meant to. People didn't thank their cars for starting in the morning and getting them from point A to point B without breaking down. If the car was operating correctly, it would do that without any need to be thanked. Why should youkai be any different?  
  
Kagome's smile faded. It should be different with youkai because youkai weren't cars. They could think and understand. And Inuyasha could feel.  
  
'Maybe I should thank him, too,' the girl thought, staring up at the glow in the dark stars on her ceiling. Quietly, Kagome slid out of bed and padded downstairs to find Inuyasha.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Okay, I know it's technically Thursday, but I haven't slept yet, so I think it counts as Wednesday. I am exhausted, in case you wonder. I worked sixteen hours on Monday, and twelve on Tuesday, but only five tonight, so I decided this would very likely be the last opportunity to write this chapter I'd have before this weekend. But now, I am going to bed. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if there are any problems with grammar of consistency, go ahead and tell me in your reviews.  
  
I blame any and all mistakes on sleep deprivation.  
  
Thanks for reading, and sorry for how short this chapter is. Until later. 


	11. Calm Before

A/N: I wanted to put more action in the last chapter, but lets face it, Eiji is no match for Inuyasha. I'll try to work in some real violence later on, but for now you'll just have to bear with me.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Kagome found Inuyasha sitting on the floor with his arms and legs crossed. His head was bowed so his shaggy white bangs mostly obscured his face. The white dog-ears on the top of his head swiveled toward the sound of the girls feet thudding softly on the hardwood floor. One golden eye slid open, then the other.  
  
"What are you doing up?" he asked gruffly.  
  
"I couldn't sleep," Kagome told him honestly, sitting down beside him. He grunted a response. After a moment her natural curiosity got the best of her and she asked, "Do you sleep?"  
  
Inuyasha sighed heavily. "No," he told her. "I do not sleep. I suspend my functions, and I can be shut down--" he gave an almost invisible shiver as he said that, but Kagome noticed "--but it's not the same."  
  
The girl pondered this. "But if you've never slept--or never slept when you knew for sure you were sleeping-- then how could you tell to difference?"  
  
The hanyou shifted uneasily at her question, and his amber eyes caught the light, making them seem to glow. Finally he ceded, "I don't know. . ."  
  
"Oh," Kagome said. If he didn't know what it was to sleep, if no one had ever told him what sleeping was but always called it 'suspended function' or whatever, how would he know if he were to fall asleep? That question lead to others: What if no one ever told him he was angry? Happy? Sad? What if he felt these emotions, but he didn't know what they were, and no one ever taught him how to deal with them? Suddenly the girl had a pretty good idea why hanyou were unstable. Other questions also came to mind. "Do you dream?"  
  
"What?" He was giving her his 'you-have-got-to-be-the-stupidest/craziest- girl-on-the-face-of-the-planet' look.  
  
"Do. You. Dream? It's not that hard a question."  
  
"I. . ." Inuyasha stopped, scowling, then continued, "When I suspend function, I get. . . I guess you could call it feedback. It's nothing really. Random memory, unprocessed data, other shit that goes through my head while my primary nervous center cools off. I suppose you could say it's like dreaming."  
  
Kagome blinked, trying to decode his answer. The only part that really made sense was the last bit. ". . .unprocessed data. . ." what a weird way to describe dreaming. Wasn't it easier just to say dreaming? Answer: obviously not for a hanyou.  
  
"Is that what you came down here for?" Inuyasha interrupted her musing. "You should go back to bed. It's almost two in the morning, and you have to get up in a few hours."  
  
"No, that's not what I came down here for," Kagome said, moving closer. "I wanted to thank you. For saving me."  
  
"Feh," came the predictable response, and he looked away from her. "I was just doing what I was made to do."  
  
"Yeah, I know," Kagome said, refusing to let his attitude depress her. "But you didn't have to force me to take you to work with me. I know I wanted to leave you behind, but I am 'really' glad you were there. So, thank you."  
  
Inuyasha was watching her again, and his expression was somewhere between disbelief, pleasure, and the sort of curiosity a little boy might have for a particularly bizarre insect. For a long moment he just fixed her with that mixed, incredulous expression, then he shifted uncomfortably and looked away. "You're welcome. Now go back to bed."  
  
"I think I'll stay here a while," she said, smiling, "if you don't mind."  
  
"Go ahead. I can't--" he cut off as Kagome leaned on his shoulder. He was warmer than she would have guessed, being a machine. Actually, she would say he was probably a little warmer than a human.  
  
Finally feeling safe, Kagome dozed off. But before sleep claimed her, she thought she heard the hanyou whisper softly, "I'm glad I was there too."  
  
*~*~*  
  
Sesshomaru teased the woman with his tongue as she moaned and made little pleading sounds in her throat. If he had a choice, he would have left right then. But then, if he had a choice, he wouldn't have been here in there first place. With a few more desultory strokes, his mistress climaxed, her back arching and her hands twisting in the sheets.  
  
The youkai pulled away, wondering why his maker had bothered giving him the facility of taste. Now he would have to wash her flavor out of his mouth. He breathed in and the smell of her pleasure and marijuana smoke coated his throat unpleasantly. Sesshomaru looked away from the sight of Ryoko panting as she slowly recovered from her orgasm.  
  
He heard the flick of her lighter, and knew that she was through with him for the night. Without waiting for a dismissal, he dressed and straightened his hair, heading for the door.  
  
"My husband will be home in a few days," the woman said, drawing the youkai's attention back to where she lay. She'd pulled her silk sheets up around her chest, and was playing with her cigarette.  
  
"So?" Sesshomaru asked, seeing no reason he should be concerned with her husband.  
  
"Just stay out of his way," the woman husked, taking a drag and exhaling the smoke through her nose. "That's all."  
  
Sesshomaru nodded and excused himself. He made his way down the stair and to the back door in search of fresh air. His creators, for reasons best left to themselves, had granted him and their other top of the line models with an extremely sensitive sense of smell. It allowed him to read the moods and intentions of the humans around him, which Sesshomaru had to admit was useful, but now he was left with the need to clean the stink out of his delicate nose.  
  
Directly off the back porch was a neat garden, the kind used for entertaining. Several white, rod iron lawn chairs were set out, as well as two glass-topped tables with brightly colored sun umbrellas. In the artificial security light, the reds and yellows on the fabric or on the flower looked strange, too bright with the sky so black. No stars were visible; the lights drowned them out.  
  
The youkai took a deep breath, and air scented with rose and jasmine and wet grass helped wash away the other, more cloying odors. He exhaled slowly through his mouth, letting the cool night air roll over his tongue. Sesshomaru closed his eyes and inhaled again. For a moment he stood there silently, just breathing.  
  
Then he realized that he wasn't alone. He opened his eyes and found the person his sharp nose had already told him would be there. The girl, Rin, watched him raptly, her head tilted slightly to one side.  
  
"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Sesshomaru asked, his voice without inflection.  
  
The girl smiled and shrugged. She was mute, he had learned. Or rather, she wasn't mute, but she didn't talk. There was no physical reason for it, according to Ryoko. The doctors had recommending therapy. The woman had laughed after she told him that, not a happy sound. He didn't know why she had laughed, but he could guess.  
  
The girl's bruises were old, but in the harsh white light their ugly green contrasted drastically with her pale skin.  
  
The sight of her bruises inspired a strange reaction in Sesshomaru. It felt as though something inside of him was trying to switch over--to change circuits or something--but wasn't quite managing it. Whatever it was wouldn't quite click. Instead, there was a place where that something, whatever it was, should be. A shape with nothing filling it in. Unconsciously, Sesshomaru ran his fingers through his long, silvery hair.  
  
"It's very late," he said. The girl shrugged again. After that, the youkai felt no need to say anything else. Most humans talked so much, and said so little. It was pathetic. He sat down on one of the lawn chairs, and gazed up at the perfectly blank night sky. A fake owl perched on a mock orange tree, briefly catching his attention. What was the point? Who was the mystery man who owned this house, and kept this wife, and who, the youkai strongly suspected, was responsible for those bruises. Why was he so paranoid?  
  
Without warning, Rin walked over and plopped down next to him. She gave him another wide grin, then settled herself uninvited against his chest.  
  
Sesshomaru froze, completely unsure how to deal with this kind of behavior. The girl was too young for his normal services, and she refused to tell him what she wanted. Indeed, she refused to 'want' anything. She seemed perfectly content to use him as a pillow. Slowly, the youkai relaxed as it dawned on him that he didn't have to do anything. She was happy to just as she was.  
  
He could push her away. She was not his mistress; he was not required to please her. . . but why? It ought not matter either way. Youkai didn't care. And Sesshomaru didn't care, really, but there was that odd gap. . . as though his responses were being shaped around that place where nothing was.  
  
He breathed in. The girl did not smell like her mother. Even if Ryoko's scent hadn't been tainted with her perfume, her tobacco and her narcotics, her natural scent was abrasive and musky. The girl smelled young, and fresh, like the watered grass smelled fresh, but it was a human scent. She did not smell unhealthy.  
  
Sighing his acceptance, Sesshomaru put his arm around the girl's shoulder, and felt her snuggle closer.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kikyo woke in the dark. She couldn't remember why it was dark, nor where she was, or even falling asleep. The chain of events leading up to now was hazy in her mind, and she wasn't sure what was real and what she had dreamt. Oddly, she didn't feel anything as she considered her situation. She knew she ought to. She should be frightened, or at least apprehensive, but for some reason she couldn't muster either emotion. Blinking, she levered herself up on stiff joints. Her body was heavy, and she was beginning to think that she had slept far too long.  
  
She blinked again, and was able to pick out some of the details of her surroundings. Not that there was anything to see. She was lying on a table, in a room devoid of any other furnishing. There were light fixtures on the ceiling, but they weren't on, obviously. There was a door, barely discernible from the wall. There was the table she was on, which was covered in tissue paper, like a doctor's would be. Other than that, she was the only feature in the room.  
  
Coldly, she examined herself, and found that she was naked. Now she was positive she should be worried, but she still felt the same complete and resounding. . . nothing. Not even an echo of feeling. Maybe I'm in shock, she wondered vaguely, pushing herself onto her feet.  
  
It was possible, but she didn't think so. She couldn't remember any reason why she might be in shock. Her last clear memory. . .  
  
She fought with that thought for a moment, trying to pin down the point where she was still sure of her memories.  
  
She remembered numbers, and a door, and. . .  
  
Inuyasha! She remembered the hanyou, regarding her with intense, molten gold eyes. She remembered his long, snowy white hair. She remembered him smiling at her uncertainly.  
  
And suddenly she felt something: fury. It filled her with heat and burned in her throat like acid. She no longer felt simply cold when she thought of the hanyou, she felt so cold it burned. Coldfire seemed to race through her.  
  
But she didn't know why.  
  
The door slid open with a hiss, and Kikyo whirled on the figure that stood framed in the entrance.  
  
"I see you're up."  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Wow, I found even more time to write, and I was feeling very inspired for some reason. Well, the result is another chapter, way before I thought I'd be able to write it.  
  
Just so you know, both Eiji and Ryoko are just little people I cooked up to serve plot purposes in this story. If either of those names pop up in the anime, I didn't know/remember them. I just don't happen to have a vast stock of Japanese names, and these happen to be two of them.  
  
Thanks for reading, and if you liked it, review. If you didn't like it, review anyway, and tell me why.  
  
Later. 


	12. Dollmaker

A/N: I am so sorry it's taken so long to update. I realize It hasn't even been a week, but my goal is to update at LEAST twice a week. Anyway, I meant to finish this chapter this weekend, but after 50 frickin' hours at work in five days with split shifts and all, I needed a couple of days to recuperate (i.e, sleep). As always, thank you to everyone who reviewed. I went back and edited the first three chapters, and wow, you guys have a lot of patience (Saro hides in embarrassment over so many stupid grammatical errors). Now, on with the show!  
  
Disclaimer: Inuyasha is not mine, he belongs to someone else, and what's more, he does not belong to me. Alright, I think I made myself clear.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Kagome woke up with a sore back and a kink in her neck, but also warm and safe.  
  
'Safe?' she thought, stretching, her brain still muzzy with sleep. 'Why does safe matter. . .?'  
  
Then she realized that she wasn't in bed, she didn't have her blankets, and that she was leaning against something that didn't make the best pillow in the world. Her eyes snapped open and she found herself looking up into the face of Inuyasha. She pulled away in surprise and stared at the startled hanyou. Her shoulder popped with her sudden motion.  
  
'He might be beautiful, but he isn't very soft.' Kagome didn't know what to say, so she gave a lame, "Good morning."  
  
"Good morning," he replied.  
  
'Wait, did he just let me sleep on him?' Kagome blinked and felt her cheeks grow hot. She was blushing. Yesterday came back to her in a rush, leaving her more than a little stunned. Inuyasha had saved her from Eiji. Eiji was dead.  
  
Inuyasha had comforted her. Maybe he did like her a little after all?  
  
"It's a good thing you woke up when you did," Inuyasha said, breaking the silence. "You'd be late for work if you slept in any longer."  
  
The girl jumped up, looking around frantically for a clock. When she found one, perched on the mantle where it always was, she saw it was already almost seven.  
  
"Inuyasha, why didn't you wake me?" Her voice came out louder and higher than she meant it to.  
  
"Keh. Do I look like and alarm clock to you?" the hanyou asked sarcastically. Kagome shot him a glare over her shoulder as she rushed out of the room to find her work clothes, and saw he was smirking.  
  
*~*~*  
  
There were, needless to say, no more protests about Inuyasha accompanying Kagome to work. In fact, after hearing about the incident, Kagome's boss and co-workers practically insisted on keeping him around. Over the next few days, the dog hanyou became a fixture at the cafe, and in the rest of the girl's life, really. It startled her how fast she grew accustomed to having him around. The two of them finally seemed to have reached a truce.  
  
Which wasn't to say they didn't argue.  
  
"I don't see what you're getting so damned upset over," Inuyasha said, exasperated.  
  
"You shouldn't pick on Shippo," Kagome explained with more patience than she felt. This was one of their more common arguments. For some reason, the two youkai refused to get along. She could almost understand this sort of jealous behavior from a children's model, but she would have thought a Companion youkai above such things. She would have thought wrong. The fox youkai in question stuck his tongue out at Inuyasha, who snarled predictably in response. "Shippo," she chided gently, "you don't have to provoke him, either."  
  
"He started it," Shippo pouted.  
  
"I did not!"  
  
Kagome ignored the fact that neither of them ought to be able to lie to her, even though one of them very obviously must be.  
  
"Listen," the girl pleaded with Inuyasha, "is it too much to ask that you guys try to get along? Please?"  
  
"Why are you telling me," the hanyou asked, a frown darkening his features. "Tell the runt."  
  
"Inuyasha, you have to be adult about this."  
  
"Why? He's been active longer than I have. He only 'looks' like a kid, you know."  
  
Kagome hadn't expected that line of attack, so she was still trying to find a proper response, when the phone rang. The girl shot her hanyou a glare so he knew he wasn't of the hook yet, then hurried to discover who had saved him for the moment.  
  
When she hit the speak-button, a little video screen set in the phone blinked on, and the image of a familiar face coalesced before her eyes. Deceptively serene expression. Tousled hair pulled back into a tail. Miroku smiled at her benignly.  
  
"Hello, Kagome," he said. "How've you been?"  
  
"Just fine, thanks," Kagome told him warily. It wasn't like Miroku to call without a reason.  
  
"And Shippo is working properly?"  
  
"Shippo's fine, too," she assured, waiting for him to get to the point.  
  
"Glad to hear it! Listen, I was just calling because I was thinking about that hanyou of yours and decided to see if I could dig anything up on him incase you did decide to sell him--"  
  
"I'm not selling him!" Kagome interrupted. She couldn't help but be horrified by the idea. He'd saved her life, and while the last few days hadn't been smooth, she still wasn't going to sell him. He was. . . he was. . . Inuyasha.  
  
The young man cleared his throat. "In any event, I was looking into some of the press releases that Inutaiyoukai was making at the time, and at some of the prototype specs and all that good garbage, and I found out some really--interesting--things. There are some very surprising designs here, Kagome. I mean, some really innovative things. I don't even know what they were trying to do with some of these youkai! And the hanyou," Miroku shook his head, letting that thought trail off. "Kagome, I think you should come over and see for yourself."  
  
"What have you found?" The girl asked, her curiosity engaged.  
  
"Nothing specifically about Inuyasha at this point, but I'm still looking. I have Myoga running through all his data to see what he might come up with. Have you ever heard of Tetsusaiga?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Tetsusaiga," Miroku repeated. Kagome had no idea what he was talking about. Apparently, he saw this, because he continued. "It was a program Inutaiyoukai was talking about putting it their hanyou once they perfected them."  
  
Kagome stared at her friend through the little video screen. "Well, what does it do?" she prompted when he said no more.  
  
"I think you should come over."  
  
"Inuyasha and I will be over in about an hour," she said after a moment's deliberation. "How's that?"  
  
"Wonderful. See you then," he said before his image vanished, replaced by the phone's stand-by screen.  
  
"Hey Kagome," Inuyasha said, appearing next to her with Shippo dangling by his tail from one hand. "What was that?"  
  
"We're going to visit Miroku," Kagome told him. "Now put Shippo down."  
  
*~*~*  
  
As always, Miroku was behind the glass counter when they arrived. This time he was reading a pamphlet with the letters AYC printed prominently across it. On the counter top was another magazine with that same activist woman on it. She was posed over a catch line about the Anti-Youkai Coalition, arms set firmly on her hips, looking very formidable in a pink tee shirt and blue jeans. Kagome was mildly impressed. It's hard to make pink look formidable.  
  
Also on the counter top was the smallest youkai Kagome had ever seen, Myoga. Myoga was one of Miroku's favorite projects. He had originally been designed to retrieve information for his owners. He had access to literally hundreds of data banks and search engines, and his own memory was nearly limitless, based on revolutionary work in the field of prism storage. . . or something like that. Around there, Kagome had tuned out. Miroku had bought the little youkai from one of the scrapping facilities where he scrounged for parts, and returned the flea youkai to almost perfect working order. Almost, because Myoga's memory was sometimes not completely accurate.  
  
"Are you becoming an activist?" Kagome asked, taking in the pamphlet and the magazine speculatively.  
  
"Of course not," Miroku scoffed setting aside the pamphlet. "It's all propaganda. But this young lady," he gestured to the girl's stern face, "is really putting new life in the AYC, and those religious groups that frown on youkai are getting behind her. Very interesting, actually."  
  
"Who is she?" Kagome asked, once again struck by the impression that the girl in the magazine looked very sad.  
  
"Her name is Hiraikostu Sango. Allegedly, her whole family was slaughtered by a rogue youkai," he explained. "As I said, she's the source of the anti- youkai movement's new fervor."  
  
"Rogue youkai?" Kagome couldn't quite suppress a incredulous smile. "Isn't that just an urban legend?"  
  
Miroku shrugged. "She doesn't think so."  
  
"Ahem," Inuyasha said pointedly. "Is that why we came all the way here to see this grab-ass?"  
  
"Inuyasha!" Kagome hissed at the same time Miroku snapped defensively, "I am a gentleman."  
  
Inuyasha snorted to both, making his opinion very clear.  
  
Then Miroku's face split in a grin. "You know," he told Kagome in an amused tone, "seeing him I can almost believe Inutaiyoukai succeeded in making a youkai with emotions. Or a hanyou, at least."  
  
"What?" Kagome nearly gasped. She wasn't sure why, but it didn't seem like a good idea to let too many people know Inuyasha could feel. Some groups had enough problems with artificial intelligence; she didn't want to know how they'd respond to the idea of synthetic emotions. Her eyes returned to Hiraikotsu Sango's unhappy face.  
  
"That's what Inutaiyoukai's CEO started trying to do over sixty years ago and he kept at it until he died," explained to her happily, awe tinting his voice. "I've come across some of the old interviews with him, and I'm not sure if the guy's a crackpot, or my new hero. Maybe both. He was definitely brilliant, and it was his obsession to create a 'living machine.' He was directly involved in developing many of his company's most experimental prototypes. When he died, Inutaiyoukai gave up on making a human-youkai and started pumping its resources into commercial production.  
  
"There's a picture of him here," Miroku said as he finished, turning to his computer and pulling up an article from some old periodical. Within seconds, Kagome was looking at a handsome, gruff looking man in his forties. He had a strong, cleanly made face, dominated by fiercely determined eyes. Actually, Kagome realized, he looked rather like an older version of Inuyasha, except his coloring was that common to a Japanese human, instead of the hanyou's striking youkai appearance.  
  
"It's sad that they quit trying when he died," Kagome said softly. "What else did it say about him?"  
  
"Myoga," Miroku said, and the diminutive youkai jumped on Kagome's shoulder.  
  
"Taisho was a visionary man," Myoga said, his small, tinny voice conveying something akin to worship. "He not only strove to create a youkai with human capabilities to think and feel instead of acting on programmed responses, thus leading to the creation of numerous hanyou models, he also is responsible for the learning engines found in almost all modern youkai. He invented the emotion simulator as it is known today, and made huge advances in the--"  
  
"Is there a point to all of this?" Inuyasha broke in, annoyance written in every line of his body. "The guy's dead, so none of this matters anyway. So he invented a few gadgets. So what?"  
  
Kagome frowned. "I want to hear about him, Inuyasha."  
  
"Keh," he responded, looking away.  
  
"Go on, Myoga," she encouraged the flea youkai on her shoulder.  
  
"Thank you, my lady," it responded. "As I was saying, he made huge advances in simulating human external features, like skin, hair, even respiration, body temperature and pulse. Without a doubt he shaped the face of youkai production, and set the bar for all those who would follow. He--"  
  
"That's enough Myoga," Miroku interrupted. "Now tell her about Tetsusaiga."  
  
"Tetsusaiga?" Kagome asked, remembering her friend mentioning that before over the phone. "What's Tetsusaiga?"  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Have I done a bad thing? Hm, probably, but how can I not end on that note? Besides, I try to keep my chapters around two thousand words, and this is at two thousand forty-odd.  
  
Alright, now I have a couple of dilemmas I thought I would share with my wonderful readers. The first is this: In the beginning, I had a plan for this story, but due to random chapter mitosis and sudden, spontaneous muse intervention, my plan has been shot to hell. I meant to have Sango actually in here by chapter eight, and, as you can see, I failed miserably. I'm not really unhappy with this--I like it when stories take on a life of their own--but I thought it only fair to give warning. I still know how everything ends, I'm just not sure how I'm getting there.  
  
My second dilemma involves the possibility of a sex scene. I have pretty much decided that Kagome and Inuyasha will sleep together during this story's timeline, but I'm not sure if I'll actually write a scene for it, or leave it implied. I'm not really reluctant to write a sex scene, because I feel it could be useful for plot purposes, but it would be most effective if it were from Inu's perspective, showing how he (as a hanyou) responds to the situation, and I have absolutely no idea how a robot would experience sex! He can feel, but can he experience physical pleasure and satisfaction? Can a machine lose himself in the moment, even if he can feel emotion? Can a machine sweat? And about a thousand other questions ranging from disturbingly insightful to incredibly stupid. In other words, my head hurts.  
  
Any thoughts on either of these problems would be greatly appreciated, so if you have an opinion, include it in a review. Thanks.  
  
Until later. 


	13. Tetsusaiga, Absinthe, and Tranquility

A/N: To answer a reoccurring question, I have never seen/read Chobits, so any resemblance is purely coincidental. So, anywho, thanks for all the reviews! I really love seeing them all, and they make it easier to write the next chapter. Keep reviewing! I'm at one hundred and thirty. Yay!  
  
Oh, and remember, Myoga's information isn't always accurate. . .  
  
Disclaimer: I think I've already made this clear. I don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
"Tetsusaiga!" Myoga piped happily. "Tetsusaiga was one of Taisho's last projects. Because hanyou are meant to have emotional responses, they often become unstable. Human brains have evolved to cope with emotions, but Inutaiyoukai's engineers found that even the most complex AI could be overwhelmed by intense feelings, like anger or fear. The purpose of the Tetsusaiga program is to balance their instability."  
  
Inuyasha looked from Kagome, who was listening to the flea youkai's explanation with rapt attention, to Miroku, who seemed very proud of himself. He felt a growl building in his chest.  
  
"Shit," he interrupted finally. "Did we come all the way here for this? To listen to some about some mythical 'program'?"  
  
"Shh, Inuyasha," Kagome hushed him. "He isn't finished."  
  
"You've got to be kidding me," Inuyasha complained. "Well, get on with it already."  
  
"Of course," Myoga said, unfazed by this interruption. "Because hanyou are meant to be as close to human as is possible, and permissible under the Replica Act, it was Taisho's intention that Tetsusaiga also would come to replace the codes that restrict a hanyou's actions."  
  
Now Inuyasha could not suppress a snarl. "What's the point of that?" he demanded caustically. "How do you sell youkai if they can't be controlled? It doesn't make any sense."  
  
"The point isn't to sell hanyou," Kagome said calmly, her tone soothing. She was trying to placate him. "Taisho wanted to create. He wasn't interested in the profit--"  
  
"Bullshit!" He didn't want to hear her say that. He didn't want to see the look of sympathy in her eyes. Couldn't she see that it was wasted on him? She must understand that, somewhere. He could still hear her saying, 'I don't want something fake.' Inuyasha tore his attention away from her, forcing her pitying eyes from his mind. "Even if he wanted to create some amazing touchy-feely youkai, you can't sell that sort of thing to stock holders."  
  
"Inuyasha," the girl whispered, and he could almost sense her feeling sorry for him.  
  
"Inuyasha," Miroku said at the same time, watching the hanyou intently. He could see the thoughts moving like clockwork behind the young man's gaze. "Did you know about Tetsusaiga?"  
  
"Keh," Inuyasha muttered, twisting away from both sets of eyes. "I'm going to wait outside, Kagome. Call me if this idiot tries anything."  
  
"I--Alright," Kagome said, nodding. "If that's what you want."  
  
Inuyasha snorted and left the shop.  
  
Outside, it was growing dark. Streetlamps were flickering on, making puddles of sodium-yellow light. Inuyasha breathed in deeply. He didn't know why he did that, but his own algorithms were occasionally beyond him. Why did he sigh, or frown, or show any emotions? Was it because he was programmed to express his emotions a certain way? Or was there something about being angry that intrinsically led to scowling?  
  
And why the hell did he hate the look in Kagome's eyes just now? Anger was an emotion Inuyasha was familiar with--the one he was most familiar with-- but this was different. The sharp surge was still there, but instead of the heat and blankness that generally went with it, there was another feeling, like sinking or falling. That was the only way he could think to describe it as he pondered this foreign response. It was like being low.  
  
He took another deep breath, and smelled the girl scent faintly on his clothes. She had a warm scent, like ginger, or cinnamon and cloves. It was the sort of smell that could wrap a person up and pull him in. Smelling that, the heavy, low feeling eased a bit.  
  
Both the ups and the downs were because of her. Why?  
  
He had felt before, had always felt, but it was different since he woke up. What had changed? Was it the girl? Or the fifty years in storage?  
  
Maybe she had screwed up some of his settings, and he hadn't realized it?  
  
Inuyasha watched as yet another streetlight came to life, lost in his thoughts. There had never been this many questions when he was with Kikyo.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kagome watched the hanyou leave, trying not to worry about his outburst, and failing miserably. He could be so strange sometimes. Something had been bothering him, but she couldn't tell just what. At first it had seemed that Taisho's idealism had frustrated him, then corporate attitudes.  
  
She did not understand. Didn't he want to know about this? About himself?  
  
"Kagome?" Miroku said, bringing her back.  
  
"Is he. . . I mean," the young man was staring fixedly at the door Inuyasha had left through. "Does he?"  
  
"Does he what?" Kagome asked tiredly, wondering just how she was going to explain Inuyasha to her friend. She'd known Miroku for a long time, and she supposed she trusted him with 'most' things, but money and women tended to influence his judgement, and Inuyasha could feasible fall under the category of money.  
  
"Is he what I think he is?"  
  
"That depends," the girl evaded. "What do you think he is?"  
  
"I think 'he' is probably as close as Taisho ever came to realizing his dream." Miroku was obviously interested. He tended not to get excited about things, but she had known him long enough to recognize the symptoms.  
  
"Miroku," Kagome said, deciding to put her faith in her friend. "Inuyasha is precisely what Taisho was trying to make. He feels at least as strongly as you or me."  
  
Miroku took a moment to assimilate that, outwardly calm while his mind was racing with the possibilities. "Myoga," he said after an uncomfortably long silence. "Will you start looking up information on Inuyasha specifically? There must be something, somewhere."  
  
"Of course," Myoga said, leaping from Kagome's shoulder back to the counter top. Kagome watched as the youkai sat down, folding all four arms across his chest, the expression on his minutely articulated face becoming one of concentration.  
  
"If he has emotions, I wonder. . ."  
  
"What do you wonder, Miroku?"  
  
"Nothing," he told her, shaking his head mildly. "You don't mind me looking into this, do you? I'll call you if I find anything."  
  
"No, of course not," Kagome assured him. "But I ought to be going. I don't like leaving him out there waiting, you know?"  
  
"Okay. I'll call you later." The girl nodded and turned to go, her mind still mostly focused on Inuyasha. Why did he respond the way he did? What went on in the hanyou's 'brain?' Had he known Taisho, she wondered suddenly. It was easy to forget he was more than old enough. Kagome was so absorbed in her thoughts, for a moment she failed to register the fact that Miroku's hand was resting gently on the lower curve of her ass.  
  
"Pervert!" she shouted, whirling on the young man and bringing her hand across his cheek in a resounding slap.  
  
Kagome barely had time to recognize the sound of the bell over the door jangling violently, before a blur of white hair and red shirt pushed between her and Miroku, and Miroku found himself dangling in the air from the front of his rumpled purple dress shirt. Both humans were left slack jawed with shock at Inuyasha's sudden reappearance.  
  
"I thought we were clear on this," the hanyou growled menacingly. "You. Do. Not. Touch. Kagome."  
  
Miroku nodded, trying hard to look innocent and dignified, and failing due to the fact his eyes were huge and perfectly round, and his feet were a good five inches away from touching the floor. Inuyasha gave him a light shake, then dropped him.  
  
"Don't you think that was a little extreme?" Kagome asked, voice wavering slightly, in the silence that followed.  
  
"Keh," was Inuyasha's only reply.  
  
"I'll call you later," Miroku told Kagome again, but his eyes were locked the hanyou. The girl nodded to show she heard him, and tugged lightly on Inuyasha's sleeve.  
  
"Kagome, be careful."  
  
That startled Kagome, and she studied her friend before answering, finding real concern in his normally calm expression. "Don't worry," she told him. "Inuyasha wouldn't hurt me."  
  
She believed that.  
  
*~*~*  
  
The smell that met Sesshomaru's nose when he opened the door to his mistress's bedroom nearly made him leave. It was bitter, strongly alcoholic smell, with a sweet edge from melted sugar that bit into the delicate tissue of his nose mercilessly. He found the source with little effort. A half-empty bottle rested on a service tray on the floor next to the bed. The bottle's contents were a toxic shade of cloudy green, and the paraphernalia scattered around it left no doubt in the youkai mind what it was.  
  
Absinthe was illegal in Japan, but then, so were many of Ryoko's pastimes. He was not particularly startled to find the woman drank the stuff along everything else she did. Why would he be surprised, considering the other things she habitually inhaled, ingested, or injected into her body?  
  
The woman herself was sprawled across her bed, oblivious to his presence. Her half-lidded eyes shown feverishly, and a sheen of sweat stood out on her body as she panted slowly.  
  
Sesshomaru caught a breath in his throat. Surely absinthe couldn't account for this. The wormwood alcohol was dangerous, but while his data banks didn't supply him with detailed information, he was fairly certain that it wasn't capable of producing this king of state. Drawing another slow breath through his nose, he sifted through the scents of the room until he defined an almost nonexistent, chemical smell. It hid underneath the stronger odors, faint even to him. Approaching Ryoko slowly, he scanned the room for the source of this faint, unnerving smell.  
  
Eventually he found it, coming from a tiny, silver tin. The container was too small to be a snuffbox, and too deep to be a cigarette case. Opening the tin gingerly, he found it was full of a crystalline white powder. Cocaine, he wondered, taking a small amount on his finger and applying it to the tip of his tongue to check for the telltale numbness. Instead, he was tasted something sickly sweet, and undeniably chemical.  
  
The pieces fell into place. Tranquility.  
  
Tranquility was a relatively new drug, but very contraband. In humans it produced a euphoric state in small doses, and oblivion in larger. It had no effect on youkai, of course, but still, Sesshomaru couldn't entirely fight the reflex to gag. The woman was stupider than he'd thought if she was taking this stuff. No one 'dabbled' in Tranquility. It was as addictive as nicotine, and nearly as dangerous as opiates.  
  
'Why the hell did she decide to do this tonight?' he wondered, aware that his company would not be required now. He doubted that she would be coherent enough to appreciate them until tomorrow morning. Still, what had possessed the woman to put Tranquility in absinthe?  
  
He was still pondering that when he heard the main gate swinging open, and the soft rumble of a car engine pulling into the drive. Suspecting he had found his answer, the youkai looked out the window. A sleek black luxury car was slowing to a stop in front of the main door.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Alright, thanks for reading. I decided that since this is the future, I could invent a new drug that had the effects I wanted for the story. Originally I was going to have Ryoko shooting-up heroine, but I don't like needles (I know that's a really stupid reason not to do that, but there it is). Anyway, I'd like to assure everyone, I do not use, nor do I encourage the use of, any of the drugs I attribute to Ryoko. I feel this ought to be clear from the way I characterize her, but I wanted to clarify that.  
  
I don't think this is my best chapter. I'll try to do better on the next one. Most of the stuff about Tetsusaiga and Taisho is necessary to the story, but I really hate having to put off action for exposition. It's one of my bad habits. Please review. I do welcome constructive criticism. It's starting to worry me how few people have had anything bad to say about this.  
  
Until next time. 


	14. Bad Things

A/N: Thank you all for the reviews, especially baka deshi who tried really, really hard to come up with something negative to say about my story. You have all made me incredibly happy.  
  
I would like to clarify that Miroku tells Kagome to be careful because while Inuyasha is obviously protective of her, hanyou are notoriously unstable, and Inuyasha has already proven (to Miroku at least) that he can be a tad violent.  
  
Warning: the following chapter contains some unpleasant things involving Rin's father.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
The man who stepped out of the vehicle was not precisely what Sesshomaru would have envisioned. His build might once have been compact, but it had long since settled to fat with middle age and soft living. His black hair was peppered grey, slicked back from a high forehead. The face illuminated by the bright security lights was jowly and marred with frown lines. His suit was wilted from his trip.  
  
Sesshomaru didn't even know the man's name, but he recognized him immediately as the master of the house. The youkai glanced back at Ryoko, lying in her stupor, then let his eyes drift over the disaster of her bedroom. This was the man who paid to feed her habits, and who had bought all the finery that adorned her house. This was the man whose daughter never spoke a word, and whose wife was currently languishing in the effects of Tranquility.  
  
Weren't these two supposed to be his responsibility?  
  
That 'thing' in Sesshomaru was fighting to click into place once again. He could feel it straining to turn over completely. But it couldn't. There was something it the way. Something that kept it from doing. . . whatever it was it was trying to do. That sense of an empty space where something ought to be came back to the youkai acutely. He almost felt as though he could feel the edges of it, pulsing quietly as that thing struggled to click.  
  
Sesshomaru's hands fisted at his sides. He did not understand what his brain was telling him. The artificial fibers that made up his muscles and sinews tightened, and he felt a rush of power along his nerves.  
  
It was as though he body was preparing for a fight, but there was nothing to indicate any threat to his mistress, or himself.  
  
A malfunction. . .?  
  
All his systems seemed to be operating properly. So why was he responding this way at the sight of a man he didn't know? Even if he was the husband of a pathetic addict, there was nothing in his codes that said he was dangerous just because he didn't stop the woman from hurting herself, just as there was no article which made him interfere when she behaved so dangerously stupid. He was only required to respond to immediate physical dangers.  
  
There was no reason for this response, even if he was responsible for Rin's bruises. . .  
  
Thinking of the girl's fading bruises and the bandage on her wrist made the energy racing through him double in intensity, and for a brief instant, something came to life in that empty space.  
  
Unfortunately, it was gone again before he could identify it, leaving only a vague afterimage in Sesshomaru's mind. Try as he might, he couldn't tell what it was inside him that so desperately wanted to activate.  
  
The sound of the front door opening snapped Sesshomaru back to reality. The man was entering the house. Outside, the youkai driver was pulling the car around to the side of the house to be unloaded. The sound of heavy footsteps climbing the stairs preluded the bedroom door flying open.  
  
Sesshomaru turned expectantly to see the man enter. Up close, the youkai could smell his cologne, and see eyes the color of black coffee. For his part, the man took in Sesshomaru's presence with a noncommental grunt, his gaze only briefly skimming over the tall, silver haired Companion youkai, to fall on his wife. At the sight of her, his wrinkles deepened, and the lines bracketing his mouth crumpled in a heavy frown.  
  
"I assume you are Ryoko's new pet," the man said after a moment.  
  
Sesshomaru wondered briefly at the choice of words. "I am Ryoko's property."  
  
"I am Nakamura Kyosuke. Does that name mean anything to you?" the man asked.  
  
"No," Sesshomaru told him honestly. "Ought it to?"  
  
Nakamura's brow lowered over his dark eyes and a muscle jumped in his cheek. "It better mean 'God'," he growled, rather unimpressively. "I own everything she owns."  
  
"I was given to Ryoko as a gift from her sister. Legally, I do not belong to you."  
  
Nakamura glared at Sesshomaru, who met his angry stare without blinking. Inside him, the edges of that empty space were throbbing, seeming to anticipate some command from the void, but whatever it was in him remained dormant. The pieces didn't fit into place.  
  
Eventually, the man looked away with a disgruntled snort.  
  
"I'll have the bitch talk to you once she sobers up," he said harshly, then turned and left.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Later that night Sesshomaru was in the room Ryoko had specified as his, reading a novel by a popular author and filing away the sloppily written prose in his memory incase it should prove useful in the future, when he heard Nakamura's feet once again pounding on the stairs. The youkai set the book aside and stood incase the man should seek another confrontation. The loud footfalls stopped short of Sesshomaru's room, though, turning aside somewhere father up the hall.  
  
Not the master bedroom, he noted, brows flexing slightly as he considered. Nakamura had come this way, and his steps hadn't slapped against the tile of the bathroom.  
  
Sesshomaru reasoned where the man must be the same instant he heard the sound of a hand striking flesh. That sound ran down the youkai's spine like melting ice, and suddenly his chest felt tighter.  
  
The sound again, followed by a soft, almost inaudible whimper.  
  
Manifestly that thing which had tried so hard before to snap into place redoubled its efforts. He could feel it straining against what was blocking it, trying to break through. The normally silent operations of Sesshomaru's brain began whirring, mildly at first, then with greater and greater force as they strained to support whatever it was that thing was trying to do.  
  
By the time the youkai's sharp ears caught the sound of bedsprings yielding to the weight of a large body, every one of his systems was buzzing in protest. The edges of the void were pounding inward, and that bit of him hiding in the emptiness was flaring to life and disappearing, on and off, on and off, but never staying or making any sense. It couldn't quite connect to the rest of him. . . not until the other piece fell into place. Not until it clicked.  
  
Sesshomaru heard a grunt through the walls, and a few moments later another, and another after that. The disgusting sound came just a little quicker every time, coinciding with the now rhythmic creaking of the springs. There was no way for the youkai to mistake what was happening. His knuckles cracked ominously as he curled his fingers into talons, but he did nothing else.  
  
His codes gave him no course of action. He was not designed for law enforcement, nor for protecting anyone but his owner. Ryoko had never even hinted that he should extend that protection to her daughter. But she had given him an order regarding her husband. 'Just stay out of his way.'  
  
He could not defend the girl. With his brain humming loudly, he didn't even question that he wanted to.  
  
After minutes of listening to the grunting, and the groaning of the box spring, and the frantic buzzing of his own circuits, Sesshomaru heard a final, stifled moan. He caught the smell of human musk even from the other room, and heard the retreating feet of Nakamura as they thumped back down stairs. It was another moment before his functions wound down, leaving the youkai trembling slightly.  
  
Sesshomaru caught himself on his chair before he could fall.  
  
What the hell had just happened?  
  
Once he was sure he could stand, the youkai straightened and hurried out of his appointed room, down the hall to Rin's bedroom.  
  
Nakamura hadn't even bothered to shut the door when he was through. The scene which greeted Sesshomaru was incongruous with the girl's bedroom, with its posters and stuffed animals, and the childish curtains printed with strange little horses in unreal shades of teal and pink.  
  
Rin was lying on the bed, looking up at the ceiling with lost eyes. The right side of her face was red and puffy. It would be a new bruise tomorrow. She was breathing raggedly through her mouth, almost sobbing, but there were no tears on her cheeks or in her eyes. Her hands were still above her head, and her wrists, too, promised new bruises. Her shorts and panties had been left hanging from one ankle.  
  
An unfamiliar feeling washed through Sesshomaru at the sight, as though his chest was slowly filling with boiling water. And another feeling, like something inside him were being ripped into tiny little pieces. He did not know what to do with either sensation. They were nothing he was prepared for.  
  
He moved into the room tentatively, thinking that he should speak, but not knowing what he ought to say. His programming failed to cover this situation. If Rin had been his owner, he would have kept Nakamura from her. He would have fought him, if necessary, even killed him.  
  
But he was not Rin's. He belonged to Ryoko. And Ryoko had told him in no uncertain terms not to interfere with Nakamura's doings.  
  
His hands still shook slightly as he touched the prone girl. Her breath caught in her throat at the light contact, and her eyes began to focus. She turned to look at him.  
  
Then, in one sudden move, she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and burying her face in his shoulder. Gently, Sesshomaru circled the girl in his arms, pulling her into a careful embrace. Still he said nothing. What could he say? That he could not protect her? A bitter taste formed on the back of the youkai's tongue, but he ignored it in favor of the girl in his arms, who was now shivering uncontrollably. He stoked her back in what he thought might be a comforting manner.  
  
She seemed to calm slightly at his touch, but tremors continued to wrack her body and she was still crying tearlessly.  
  
On impulse, Sesshomaru lifted the girl from her bed and carried her to the bathroom, where he sat her gingerly on the counter top, all the while watching for the any wince or hitch in her already labored respiration that would imply he had hurt her. When he was reasonably sure she was alright for the moment, he left her to start filling the tub with water. When he finished ajusting the water temperature, he returned to the girl quickly.  
  
Brushing the hair back from her face, he committed to memory her pained expression, the somewhat dazed look in her eyes, the split in her lip, and the blood trickling in a thin trail from her nose.  
  
"This will not happen again," he said, finally finding his voice. He wasn't sure how he could prevent it, but it would if he had to rewrite his own codes to do it.  
  
Against all odds, Rin smiled at him.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kikyo traced her fingers over the cafe's window, weaving abstract patterns only she could see. Her eyes gazed vacantly back at her from her reflection on the darkened glass.  
  
She had seen Inuyasha leave here earlier today, following some slip of a girl who had somehow come to inherit him. The coldfire had spiked to a new intensity within her when she saw that girl. Did Inuyasha lie to her as well? Did that machine claim to love her, as he had once upon a time claimed to love Kikyo?  
  
Or was that cruel lie only for one woman?  
  
"Inuyasha," the Replica murmured tonelessly. Her lips quirked in the shadow of a smile, and she laid both hands flat against the window. Energy pooled in her palms, building just under the skin waiting.  
  
When she released it, the glass exploded inward.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: This was very hard chapter for me to write, and I ended up spending more time with Sesshomaru and Rin than was my original intention. Please forgive me for what I did to Rin.  
  
Until next time, review! 


	15. Windows to the Soul

A/N: This chapter should be more pleasant than the last, and it will focus once again on Inu and Kag. Thanks for all the reviews people. And let me assure you all, Nakamura will get his before the end. How could I let that bastard get away with what he did to Rin?  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Kagome and Inuyasha walked home in silence, both lost in their own private thoughts. Occasionally Kagome would steal a glance at the hanyou, taking in the brooding weight in his amber eyes. 'How did they manage to give a machine such expressive eyes?' she wondered, looking away before he could notice her attention.  
  
Since they had lost their original blankness, Inuyasha's eyes had reflected each of his emotions. They grew molten when he was angry. They softened and lightened uncertainly when he was flustered. They turned sharply from amber to yellow diamond when he was frustrated or annoyed. She tried to think of what they looked like when he was happy, but her memory couldn't provide an image for it. He had seemed sad once, when Kikyo was mentioned, and his eyes had turned a dark, liquid shade, like syrup.  
  
'And my brother call's me moody,' she reflected wryly, chewing absently on her lower lip while she continued to ponder Inuyasha.  
  
Miroku had told her to be careful, be she didn't think that Inuyasha would hurt her. Unstable or not, he had already shown a strong protective streak. What was more, Kagome didn't think the hanyou was all 'that' unstable. Aggressive, temperamental and occasionally juvenile, yes, but not unstable. His protectiveness could actually be a little flattering, and he had saved her from Eiji. . .  
  
Kagome shook her head to dismiss any illusions she was building. Inuyasha was protective because he was programmed to be. He had been perfectly clear on that point. Perhaps, just perhaps, he was starting to warm toward her, but nothing more than that.  
  
Well, being his friend was better than having him hate her, the girl told herself firmly, then looked around, surprised to find how close they were to her apartment. She hadn't realized how far they'd come. It was dark, and she thanked god that she had her hanyou with her. She hadn't been paying attention to her surroundings at all.  
  
She'd been thinking about him and his stupid eyes.  
  
It couldn't be healthy to keep all those emotions bottled up like that.  
  
The foreign idea struck Kagome hard. The corporations that made hanyou and youkai had wanted to make them more human like, and Taisho had wanted to make a machine with not only a sentient mind, but also with the emotions that went accompanied it. How far had those people considered the mental well-being of their creations?  
  
Strange as that thought was, Kagome suddenly felt as though she'd discovered the missing piece of the puzzle. It wasn't healthy to keep emotions bottled up inside, psychologists had confirmed that a long time ago. With the first youkai, mental health wouldn't have been a consideration. All their responses had been predetermined, with no room for creative thought or improvisation. Since then, advances in technology had given youkai learning capabilities, conscious thought, egocentric perspection, personality, and now emotion. But how far had human attitudes evolved?  
  
Kagome stopped herself from chewing a hole through her lip, and realized that she was standing in front of her own door.  
  
'I'll have to talk to Miroku about this," she decided, fumbling for her key. 'He knows more about youkai that I do.'  
  
Inuyasha sighed softly, drawing Kagome's attention from her locked front door. She recognized the deep, liquid appearance of sadness.  
  
'I'll have to talk to him, too.' Maybe if he told her about what he felt. . . would it be like when he told her about his dreams?  
  
Before Kagome could fit her key card into the slot, the door swung open, and a small, furry, irate bundle flung itself into Kagome's arms, resolving into Shippo. The fox youkai shot Inuyasha an accusing look, then his fixed mischievously tilted green gaze on the girl. She blinked, suddenly finding herself considering Shippo's eyes as well.  
  
Maybe she should look at youkai's expressions more often.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Inuyasha listened with one ear as Kagome got ready for bed. She had been unaccustomedly quiet during the trip home. Not that it bothered him. He had plenty enough on his mind without the girl nattering on, but he wondered.  
  
Actually, he didn't mind her talking that much, he admitted to himself. And he liked arguing with her (as long as he was winning). It was nice to stop thinking from time to time. Since the girl had reactivated him, he had spent a lot of time thinking, and generally his thoughts frustrated him, as did the feelings they inspired. He thought about Kagome, and why he couldn't seem to dislike her as he wanted. He thought about himself, and his makers, and what the hell had been going through those madmen's heads when they thought making a machine with feelings would be a good idea. Mostly, he thought about Kikyo, though. He didn't try to think of her. In fact, he wanted to hate her even more than he didn't want to like Kagome. The bitch had shut him down, left him in storage for half a century, and disconnected his neural circuit for no reason he could fathom.  
  
He remembered their last encounter vividly.  
  
She had returned home upset. He had smelled her agitation before she had even opened the door, and the bitter flavor of her anger and hurt had hit him with almost physical force. He had immediately become. . . anxious, was that the word? Was that the name for that light, frenetic feeling? It suited.  
  
Unknowing, he had asked her what was wrong, and she had turned on him. She had hissed, and snapped, never actually screaming, nor cursing, or any of the other things that might have given vent to the heat he felt in her. Her eyes glimmered with the tears she held back, but as always she had remained totally in control.  
  
She had said things he couldn't understand. She had denied his love. . . He knew it had been love. What else could it have been? Why else could the accusations she hurled at him hurt so much? Only love could make someone vulnerable like that, Inuyasha was sure.  
  
Then she had commanded him still while she turned him off. Her hands hadn't even shaken when she reached in to turn him off. The last thing he'd seen before his sight had failed was her eyes, dark and opaque as tarnished metal.  
  
He never knew why she did it. She never said.  
  
And now it was beginning again, with this girl. Why couldn't he not worry about her? Why did her smile make him feel better?  
  
Long after Kagome had gone to bed, Inuyasha gave up on his revery and suspended his functions.  
  
*~*~*  
  
An image appeared in the hanyou's cooling brain. The hues were vague, as though the vision had been rendered in watercolors, and distances were indistinct.  
  
It appeared as though Kikyo was sitting in a field, the breeze ruffling her long black hair, her face set in an expression of sad contentment. She was not precisely happy, and she was well aware that this was as good as it would get. For her, the world did not supply happiness, and she had never known how to find it herself.  
  
Inuyasha didn't know how he could know that.  
  
Kikyo turned toward him and raised a beckoning hand. A small, melancholy smile curved her lips.  
  
Her eyes were heartless.  
  
Suddenly the scene faded in a wash of darkness, and Kikyo was left facing him in a strange, shadowy place. Her skin was grey. Her hair was lank. Her smile had been replaced with a bizarre facsimile.  
  
Lurid pink light gathered around her hands. . .  
  
*~*~*  
  
Inuyasha became alert all at once, wondering why he had 'woke.' He wasn't supposed to until morning, unless something interfered. He focused his senses, searching for the disturbance.  
  
After a long moment, the hanyou shook his head. "That's never happened before."  
  
*~*~*  
  
Morning came too early, and Kagome was staring blurrily at her coffee, trying to convince herself that going back to bed was 'not' as good an idea as it sounded. It sounded so good, though.  
  
"Hey, Kagome," Inuyasha said from the doorway. "You better hurry. You'll be late if you spend too long communing with your coffee-god."  
  
"Be nice," Shippo said. "Kagome's tired."  
  
"She's always tired in the morning. Nothing new," the dog hanyou said, shrugging.  
  
"Hey Shippo," Kagome said before her youkai could retort. "Will you wait in the other room a minute, please." Shippo pouted, shooting a glare at Inuyasha which could only be called jealous, then sulked out of the room. 'I have been neglecting him lately,' the girl thought as she watched Shippo go, and made note to pay more attention to him from now on. But first, she wanted to talk to Inuyasha.  
  
"What?" he asked, taking half a step back when she turned toward him.  
  
"Sit down, Inuyasha," she said, gesturing to the chair across from her. The crossed his ankles and dropped gracefully to sit on the floor, just to be obstinate, she was sure. She ignored the minor insult, and wondered briefly how to proceed. What exactly was she going to say to him that wouldn't set him off?  
  
"I wanted to speak to you," she began slowly, watching for any sign that he was going to balk. "I want to ask you a couple of things, but you don't have to answer if you don't want. I'm not going to force you."  
  
"What do you want to know?" he asked suspiciously. Kagome hadn't expected any better. He hadn't flat out refused to speak to her at all, which she'd more than half feared he might.  
  
"I. . .uh, Inuyasha is there anything you'd like to tell me?"  
  
"What?" he asked, blinking in confusion. "What do you mean?"  
  
"Well. . ." Too late to stop now. She'd just have to press on and hope she didn't scare him away. "You can't deny that you feel, and sometimes there are things people just have to get off their chest, you know?"  
  
"Off their chests?"  
  
"Not literally. It's--I don't know--it's like when you feel like you have a weight on your chest. Do you know that feeling?"  
  
Inuyasha wasn't looking at her directly, but eying her around his nose, face partly averted. Slowly he nodded, indicating he was familiar with the feeling.  
  
Kagome sighed in relief. "It can make you feel better if you talk about it. And. . . I don't suppose anyone has really tried talking to you about you're feels, have they?"  
  
His expression became a little less suspicious, but he chose not to answer than. Kagome felt a pang of hurt, but she pushed it away. He didn't have to answer, and it was important to her that Inuyasha believe her when she said he didn't have to say anything if he preferred not to.  
  
"So, is there anything, you want to tell me?"  
  
He was silent for a long time, leaving Kagome to watch as his gaze dropped thoughtfully to the linoleum floor. By the time he opened his mouth to speak, Kagome was sure he was going tell her to mind her own business.  
  
He surprised her, saying instead, "You asked once if I dream. Last night, I suppose I had a dream that. . . upset me. . ."  
  
He made the last part a question, as though he didn't know if that was quite the right word or not. Kagome nodded encouragingly.  
  
"It didn't make any sense," he continued, his voice taking on a rough edge.  
  
"It's a dream," Kagome assured him, hoping he wouldn't stop. "It doesn't have to make sense. You said it upset you. What was it about?"  
  
"It's not important."  
  
Kagome was about to say something else when the phone rang. Grumbling, the girl went to find out who in world had such bad timing. Inuyasha had been talking to her, and now she had to leave him to get the phone.  
  
A moment later she returned, and barely noticed the curious hanyou as he took in her shocked face.  
  
"Something happened at the cafe," she explained weakly.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Okay, that's if for today. Hope this chapter wasn't too boring for all of you. I realize that the first two thirds are nothing but Inuyasha and Kagome thinking, but it's important thought. There should be more action in the coming chapters, so you only have to be patient a little longer.  
  
Until next time. 


	16. Sparks and Dry Grass

A/N: Thanks for the reviews. I love all of them.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions.  
  
"What?" Inuyasha asked. He felt the banked flare of slow rising anger, and the particular sharp edge that frame of mind lent his thinking. He was insulted. The cafe where Kagome worked was his territory, he realized in the back of his mind. Somehow, being associated with Kagome had made it so. 'Next I'll be protecting the fox,' he thought sardonically, but anger pushed the thought aside.  
  
"I don't know exactly. That was Matsui Kenjii--the boy who works the same shift as me--and he said the place was just wrecked. The windows are all broken, the inside is trashed, and there are weird burn marks everywhere." Kagome relayed the message expressionlessly. "He said some people are saying it was a rogue youkai."  
  
"A what?" the hanyou asked, his brow lowering in confusion. "What are you talking about?"  
  
"A rogue youkai," Kagome repeated, then blinked repeatedly, focusing on his face. "Oh. I suppose there weren't too many stories about rogue youkai fifty years ago." Inuyasha shook his head and waited for the girl to continue.  
  
"Rogue youkai are youkai that have gotten around their basic codes somehow," she explained.  
  
"Unregistered?" Inuyasha asked, concern coloring his tone. Unregistered youkai were dangerous; their owners had generally hacked into their innate commands and disabled the safeties that prevented youkai from attacking humans with out provocation, destroying property, et cetera. "Are there many unregistered youkai in this time, Kagome?"  
  
"No," Kagome said quickly, "not unregistered. Rogue. There's this whole conspiracy theory about youkai that turn wild and operate without humans telling them what to do. It's just an urban legend."  
  
That made him remember something Miroku had said. "Wasn't that activist saying her family was killed by rogue youkai?"  
  
"Yeah," the girl agreed.  
  
"You should have told me about this," Inuyasha told her sternly. "How am I supposed to protect you if I don't know you have berserk youkai in this time?"  
  
"It's just an urban legend," Kagome repeated. "It doesn't matter. Besides, I'm sure you'd be able to protect me anyway."  
  
The hanyou was not pacified by her answer, and he felt a rumble building in his chest. It wasn't quite a growl, not yet anyway, and like sighing and scowling, he wasn't precisely sure what inspired it.  
  
"So what are you going to do now?" he asked.  
  
"I don't know," she answered honestly. "Kenjii thinks I should come down and gawk at the damage, and I should probably talk to my boss. . . The cafe was insured, but it will still take a while to fix."  
  
Kagome sighed mournfully. "Now I'll have to borrow money from Mama just to make rent."  
  
"Keh. That old bitc--" a glare from the girl changed what Inuyasha mind at the last moment, "--ah, Kaede isn't going to kick you out." He stood deliberately. "Let's get going then. Might as well get this over with as quick as possible."  
  
For a second or two Kagome looked like she was going to argue, but then she just nodded and stood herself.  
  
"What?" a high-pitched voice surprised both of them. "Hey, where are you going?"  
  
Shippo stood in the kitchen doorway, his bright eyes shifting from human to Companion youkai, then back again accusingly. The little fox was frowning childishly.  
  
"Shippo," Kagome answered gently, "you know I have to work today."  
  
"But I heard you say the place you work was blown to little, tiny pieces," he protested. "You can't go there now."  
  
"I'll be fine," she assured the youkai kit. "Inuyasha will be with me."  
  
Immediately, Inuyasha realized Kagome had said the wrong thing. Hearing the hanyou's name, Shippo's wavering expression dropped. "Why does he get to go with you? He follows you 'everywhere,' and I hafta stay here. It's not fair."  
  
"Life's not fair, brat," Inuyasha broke in, lifting Shippo by the back of his shirt so he could look him straight in the face. "If I were as useless as you, I'd have to stay here, too."  
  
"Inuyasha! Be nice to Shippo, or you will stay here."  
  
"But Kagome. . ."  
  
"Not buts, or I'll leave you behind."  
  
"Keh," Inuyasha grumbled, dropping Shippo to the ground. If she thought he was going to admit defeat that easily, she had another thing coming. She couldn't leave him behind. They had that argument before, and he'd proven then. . .  
  
"Thank you Inuyasha." And somehow, simply as that, the girl squashed everything he was about to say. 'How the hell does she do that?' he wondered.  
  
Kagome's attention was already back on her old fox youkai. She smiled at him and said, "You're right Shippo."  
  
"I am?" Shippo piped, eyes going wide in shock.  
  
"He is?" Inuyasha said at the same time.  
  
Kagome nodded, still beaming at Shippo, making the fake child puff up proudly. Inuyasha wanted to bop the kid on the head, either for the look on his face, or because Kagome was giving him that smile of hers.  
  
"You can come with us, this time," Kagome told the kit, who burst into an infantile display of affection, throwing himself into the girl's arms and laughing into her shoulder, his fluffy tail waving behind him wildly.  
  
Inuyasha's ears flatted against his head, and it took an act of will to make them relax again. 'Oh, the kid's going to get it when I get him alone. . .' The hanyou turned away, letting his thought trail off into all the happy possibilities of damaging Shippo.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kagome didn't understand Inuyasha's mood as they rode the bus downtown. But then, when did she understand what went through his head? He'd been so close to opening up to her before the phone rang. She still felt a little swell of pride that he had been comfortable enough with her to share his nightmare with her. But what about it had upset him? Unfortunately, the chance that he would explain now that the moment was past looked slim to none. Especially with him shooting her dirty looks through his bangs. What had she done to deserve those?  
  
Shippo was still bubbling happily. The girl listened with half an ear while watching the city go by outside the bus window.  
  
She was startled back to reality when Inuyasha poked her arm. "Hey, this is our stop," he said, standing deliberately against the momentum of the bus as it pulled to a stop a block and a half away from the cafe.  
  
Kagome stood as well. Shippo clung to her shoulder rather than walk himself, and she let him. After ignoring him for the last week or so, she figured he deserved to be spoiled a bit. She tweaked his tail, enjoying way the soft faux fur tickled her fingers.  
  
She heard Inuyasha scoff quietly, and shot a curious glance at the hanyou's back. What was the matter with him, anyway? First he yelled at her for not telling him about rogue youkai, and then this sophomoric display. If she didn't know better, she would have said he was jealous.  
  
The sound of many raised voices didn't really register on Kagome until she turned a corner and found herself confronted with the crowd that had gathered in front of the cafe. There were at least a few hundred people milling around in front of the half-burnt out structure, and they didn't have the confused air of sightseers. Instead, they all seemed to be pressing forward against the building, giving off a dissatisfied murmur.  
  
Here and there Kagome caught sight of placards bearing the slogans and insignias of the AYC.  
  
"Ah, Inuyasha," Kagome whispered, though there was no way she could have been heard from that far away. "Maybe we should come back later. This doesn't look good."  
  
Inuyasha nodded his agreement. Shippo was trembling in her arms. Both of them had enough sense of self-preservation to know this was not a good place for them to be. Not with rumor of the alleged youkai attack bringing all the die-hard youkai haters out of the woodwork.  
  
It was too late, though. Someone had seen them, and a ripple went through the crowd as they turned their collective attention to the girl with her youkai. A few shouted insults and catcalls, which made Kagome blush and Inuyasha's already stern face hardened, but mostly the murmur grew to an unpleasant grumble.  
  
Kagome felt as though her heart shrunk seeing all those people staring at her with undisguised malice. She tried to swallow, but found her mouth was suddenly dry.  
  
Inuyasha stepped in front of her protectively, shoulders braced for a fight.  
  
"What have we here?" A feminine voice said above the general cacophony. Instantly, the crowd grew still. Not quiet. That many people would be hard pressed to be completely quiet, but the aggressive buzz of their voices died down to a low hum. Slowly the press of bodies parted, allowing the speaker out.  
  
The woman who emerged was no more than a year or two older than Kagome, with long, straight black hair pulled back into a sensible looking ponytail. She was not as tall as she looked in her pictures, though she was still a few centimeters taller than Kagome herself.  
  
Hiraikotsu Sango leveled the trio with a disapproving, flint-hard gaze, and walked toward them at a quick, confidant pace.  
  
"What have we here?" she asked mockingly as she drew nearer. Kagome watched the older girl approach from around Inuyasha's shoulder, wishing she could think of anyway out of this without a conflict. She saw her hanyou's ears flatten against he skull, and heard the first stirring of a growl in his throat.  
  
"Let's see, it looks like a little girl with a couple of toys. What are you doing with a kiddy toy like that?" Sango asked, eyes flickering momentarily to Shippo before settling on Inuyasha. "I can imagine why you have this one. You know, you should get some help. Fetishes like this are usually indicative of serious mental illness."  
  
Kagome backed up a step, stung by the young woman's casual attacks. The growl Inuyasha had been suppressing bloomed into a warning snarl. Kagome couldn't see his face, but she imagined his eyes were all but glowing with anger.  
  
"Don't talk to her like that," the hanyou said in a low, controlled tone.  
  
"We should get out of here," Shippo whispered in Kagome's ear urgently. "This is going to be bad." Kagome didn't answer, watching Sango eyes narrow as she stepped up to Inuyasha and jabbed him in the chest with one bold finger.  
  
"Don't tell me what to do, mongrel. Your kind shouldn't even exist." She raised one eyebrow archly. "You're what happens when science doesn't know where to draw the line. Look at you. You're just a fake human."  
  
'How can she say things like that?' Kagome wondered dumbly.  
  
Sango went to poke Inuyasha's chest once again, but this time he caught her wrist in one strong hand. Kagome remembered Eiji with a sick twist of dread, and was about to protest when she saw that Inuyasha wasn't hurting the young woman at all, but neither was he letting go.  
  
"Control your youkai," Sango told at Kagome, a slight tension around her eyes the only indication that she was scared of the hanyou that held onto her firmly.  
  
Kagome straightened, moving around Inuyasha to get a better view of the scene. "I don't see why I should," the girl said slowly. "'You' were the one provoking 'him.'"  
  
A scream from the other side of the congregation broke into the tense moment that followed. Then all hell broke loose.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: I finally got Sango into the story. Yeah! I rule! And it only took twice as long as I planned. . . Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. See, I didn't forget about Shippo.  
  
Alright. I'm done now. Please review. It will help me get the next chapter done quicker.  
  
Until next time. 


	17. Catching Fire

A/N: Sorry I took so long to update. I sort of had a mini case of writer's block, but it's all better now.  
  
Okay, I got a few of questions that probably deserve to be answered. One being, whether or not Kouga will make an appearance. The answer to that is yes, I was planning on slipping him in, but it's really more of a cameo role than anything. Another is how many more chapters there will be. Now that is a very good, and rather difficult question. Originally I was thinking there would be about twenty-five chapters in total, however, as I've said before, this story has sort of evolved and become longer than I intended. At this point, I would estimate between thirty-five and forty chapters. Wow, I hadn't realized until just now how long that is. . .  
  
Yes, I realize Sango is being a bit bitchy, but please recall, the first thing she does when she meets Inuyasha in the anime is try to kill him.  
  
I've been wracking my brain for a way to slip in Kirara, and I just haven't come up with one I like. Sorry.  
  
Jaken will not be appearing.  
  
Also, to bakaneko, though I'm flattered by your sentiment, don't you think my other readers would be angry with you for running off with the story like that?  
  
Thanks for all the reviews, everyone. I'll get on with the chapter now.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Inuyasha released the young activist's captive wrist, all thought of her swept away by the scene that filled his senses.  
  
The protesters were scattering in every direction. Some of them were screaming, some crying, but all of them were running from the lumbering monstrosity that was lurching toward them. The hanyou's delicate ears could hear its joints grinding and its servos whirring unhealthily as it moved. In its wake was a trail of broken trees, shattered windows and smashed vehicles, like toys left behind after a child's tantrum.  
  
It took Inuyasha a moment to recognize the thing as an industrial youkai. Or rather, for him to realize that once upon a time it had been an industrial youkai. Pieces of is outer casing were falling away to reveal the purely robotic frame under its plastic skin. Unlike Inuyasha himself, or even Shippo, no effort had ever gone into making this youkai approximate a living creature. It appeared that several makeshift attempts had been made at repairing the huge machine, but the half-hearted attempts at fixing the thing only seemed to add to its haggard appearance. Its eyes glowed a vicious red even in the sun light.  
  
Inuyasha watched unblinking as the youkai flung an AYC activist aside with a careless swing of its thick neck.  
  
"Kagome, we're leaving. Now." She had better not argue with him this time. If she so much as opened her mouth to disagree with him, he was going to throw her over his shoulder and carry her away, kicking and screaming if need be. There was no way he was letting her stay here.  
  
The girl was about to answer him, when Sango interrupted with a sharp gasp. "Kohaku. . .?" she murmured in shock. Then the stupid bitch ran. Straight toward the mammoth youkai, her gaze fixed on a small, retreating figure. Too late, Inuyasha made a grab for her and missed.  
  
Growling curses, he turned away from the young woman who wasn't his responsibility, to face the one who was. "Kagome," he said again, making his tone gruff. "Come on."  
  
"What about Hiraikotsu Sango?" Kagome asked, almost too quietly to be heard in their small island of calm. The chaos was growing closer to them by the moment.  
  
"Not my problem," Inuyasha said, reaching out and catching the girl's arm.  
  
"Inuyasha!"  
  
"What?" he demanded. Why the hell was she stalling? Why was he letting her?  
  
"We have to help her. . ."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because that 'thing' might kill her if we don't," Kagome yelled back. "Lots of people could get hurt. Aren't you designed to protect?"  
  
"I'm not abou--"  
  
"Uh, guys," Shippo interrupted, his voice quaking as hard as his body. "I don't think now is the time to argue about this."  
  
Kagome nodded once in agreement, and shook off Inuyasha's hand. Then she took off. In the same fucking direction as the other bitch. For an instant, the hanyou clenched his fists, anger and another, less familiar emotion making themselves known, but before she could get more than two meters he was beside her.  
  
"Have you gone insane?" he hissed.  
  
"Inuyasha, help her!" the girl half pleaded, half commanded him. "Stop that thing."  
  
Immediately the hanyou's systems charged, dormant programs flaring to life as energy raced through previously closed channels. He felt an electric tingle in his fingers, just beneath his claws, and his lips peeled back to reveal his fangs.  
  
'To hell with it,' he thought bleakly, helpless to disobey. Cursing the girl, circumstance, and whatever gods might control the fate of youkai, Inuyasha leapt toward the approaching monster.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kagome missed a step when Inuyasha left her side. 'What happened?' she wondered briefly, before blinking away her confusion. The hanyou had put himself right in the industrial youkai's path, his long white hair and fighting stance making him conspicuous among the clambering humans.  
  
"I told him to. . ." she said aloud, suddenly understanding. She had told Inuyasha to stop the youkai, and now he was going to, or he was going to get himself killed trying. Her chest constricted with guilt, but she saw Sango struggling against the tide of people, trying to get to someone or something through the press. Where did all these people come from anyway? Surely there hadn't been this many here before. . .  
  
Shippo squirmed and clutched Kagome tighter as she fought to reach the other girl. His face was buried in her neck, and she could just barely hear him whimper under her ear. She had to get to Sango before she was trampled by the mob, or crushed by the mad youkai.  
  
Stealing a glance at Inuyasha, Kagome saw that the youkai had stopped, cocking its misshapen head to study the small obstruction. Inuyasha looked tiny by comparison, and soft with his humanlike body and pale, silky hair. The sneer on the dog hanyou's face and the almost feral light in his eyes was far more intimidating than the monster's placid expression, however.  
  
'He'll just have to take care of himself for the moment,' she told herself firmly, as she drew closer to her target.  
  
"Sango," Kagome shouted over the din. She didn't respond, either because she hadn't heard or she didn't care. Kagome tried to find some sign of the figure she thought Sango had been trying to reach, but could no longer see it. Whoever it had been, whatever he was to the activist, he was long gone. "Sango, we have to get out of here!"  
  
"What do you want?" Hiraikotsu gritted out when Kagome managed to push through the crowd beside her.  
  
"We have to go," Kagome insisted, ignoring the older girl's question. It would have to wait for later. "I don't know if Inuyasha can actually fight that youkai."  
  
A metallic roar froze the two women in their tracks. On the street, the youkai had reared back on its shorter hind legs, standing to a full height that rivaled the buildings on either side. Kagome's throat tightened painfully at the sight of Inuyasha standing in its shadow.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Inuyasha faced his opponent, taking in its relative size and weight compared to his own. It was all metal and twisted wire cable, with a thick body and heavy limbs, vaguely bearlike in shape. Its movements were slow, both awkward and deliberate, as though it was forced to consider each motion carefully. Its reflexes would be choppy as best. It would probably be his only advantage. He cracked his knuckles experimentally, feeling his claws twinge with something that was almost an itch.  
  
The monster stood, its joints howling in protest, and stood to tower over the hanyou. It glowered down at him with empty red eyes, then fell forward, letting gravity bring it back to the ground faster than its own limbs could.  
  
Inuyasha rolled to the side well before the youkai's forelegs hit with enough force to break the pavement, then was forced to dodge again as it swung its blunt nose his direction. Inuyasha had never actually fought like this before, but his programming kicked in and he brought his claws down to strike a glancing blow to the side of the youkai's muzzle. Energy flowed out of his fingertips, cutting through its plastic skin and opening three wide gashes in the metal casing underneath. The brute shuddered away with a strained clanking sound.  
  
The hanyou landed lightly, and paused to stare at his own claws in disbelief. He hadn't known he could do that. It was supposed to be illegal. . . Before he could finish that thought, the youkai turned to face him again, opening its mouth to reveal sharp, stainless steel teeth. It bellowed a staticky challenge, then charged him.  
  
Again, Inuyasha had no trouble dodging the larger youkai's attack, and again he slashed at it with his hands. The energy under his claws drew bright lines in the air as he opened four more cuts on the side of the youkai's neck. Inuyasha allowed himself to smirk as he considered his opponent's damage. Though not deep, he had hit it twice, while avoiding its clumsy attacks. Evidently, he was better made than even he had thought.  
  
This time, Inuyasha chose to take the offensive, rushing his enemy and scouring new lines across the back of his adversary's head. He landed safely on the other side of the youkai as it shook off his attack.  
  
The hanyou's satisfaction was short lived as he saw that once more, the damage was only superficial. He gritted his teeth against a new snarl, and launched himself at the youkai again, bringing both hands down like talons into the thing's eye, cracking its optics and tearing at the face around the socket.  
  
The youkai made a high-pitched sound of protest, shaking itself violently to dislodge the irritant. Inuyasha was thrown off of it, only half able to save himself from crashing into the asphalt, landing on his shoulder instead of his head.  
  
The industrial youkai swatted at him with one foreleg, and he rolled away to avoid being crushed, only to feel 'pain' lance from his left shoulder straight to the base of his skull as the joint ground stuck instead of moving smoothly. Inuyasha staggered back in shock as he came to his feet.  
  
He had never felt this before. He knew what it was, but he had never 'felt' it. His body was sending him a message that he was damaged, and telling him not to do that again. He didn't like it. It wasn't incapacitating, nor should it affect what was left of his fighting capability, but he did not like the feeling.  
  
Anger filled him, and the light coming from his fingertips grew brighter, leaving traces of power to sizzle in the air as he moved.  
  
This wasn't working. He needed to find someplace to hit that would actually bring this thing down.  
  
Unwanted, he caught Kagome's scent, high with fear. 'What the hell is she still doing here?'  
  
'Shit. Isn't she even smart enough to run away now that she's caught that damned activist?' Obviously she wasn't, because there she was, watching.  
  
The youkai struck again while Inuyasha was distracted. He nearly didn't jump back in time.  
  
At this rate, the larger youkai would outlast him. The injuries he managed to inflict on it weren't much more than skin deep on it, its vital systems protected by sheer mass, while Inuyasha knew he wouldn't be able to take one more hit. He'd already lost the use of one arm.  
  
Fixing all of his attention on the youkai, Inuyasha searched for any weakness he could exploit, and saw nothing but solid metal.  
  
"Fuck me," he whispered aloud.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Okay, that's it for today. I actually expected to have the fight scene done in one chapter. Sorry. This is why this story is going to be longer than I meant it to be.  
  
Until next time. 


	18. Blaze

A/N: Thank you for all the reviews! It was a real thrill to get over two hundred. I was especially happy to get positive feedback on the fight scene (or what there is of it), because I was a little unsure on it.  
  
Thanks again.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Inuyasha almost wished he could stop fighting to yell at Kagome. He had some choice phrases for her, but he was fairly certain that the industrial youkai between them wasn't going to let him go. Instead he flexed his good hand, swore under his breath, and prepared for another attack which would most likely prove as fruitless as his others.  
  
Kagome had to get away. That was more important than his own 'survival.' He was sure he could occupy this youkai for long enough for her to get away, but she had to run. He could shout to her, but then this monster might notice her. . .  
  
"Inuyasha!" the girl screamed, making it a moot point.  
  
Predictably, the youkai turned its head toward this new voice, angling its remaining eye on Kagome. Its limbs creaked as it shifted its weight.  
  
"Get the hell out of here!" the hanyou told her over the noise, then launched himself at the youkai again. This time he hit it under the chin nearly punching a hole through the soft spot behind its jaw.  
  
"You're still fighting me, remember?" he said, as he landed, smirking more for the benefit of Kagome and his opponent than because of any real confidence.  
  
The youkai made a coughing sound, opening and closing its wide mouth experimentally. Unfortunately, the joints worked as well as they had before the attack. Inuyasha snarled. How was going to bring this big fuck down? He stole a glance at Kagome and the activist, both of whom still stood there watching him.  
  
"What are you waiting for?" Inuyasha shouted at the girl as the youkai forced him to dodge another swipe from its massive foreleg. This time he missed his counter attack. He had to focus on the fight, but Kagome was there. . .  
  
He shook his head and forced all his attention on the youkai before him. Where was this damn thing vulnerable? His eyes raked over it critically as it opened its huge mouth to let out another outraged roar.  
  
"Inuyasha," Kagome's voice reached his ears. He tried to ignore it as he sized the industrial youkai up yet again. It was blind on the left side, and its reaction speed was laughable, so if he focused on that quarter, he could probably buy himself some more time. The thing didn't seem too bright, either. He might be able to use that to his advantage. . . but then, it wasn't exactly like he had a whole lot to work with.  
  
"Inu--" Damn, that girl was insistent.  
  
The youkai turned away from the hanyou, once again drawn by Kagome's yelling.  
  
Inuyasha had just enough time to think, 'Oh hell,' as he darted around the youkai to put himself between it and the girls. He scratched its cheek as he went, his claws easily gouging even metal. Too bad he couldn't get deeper. . .  
  
A plan formed in the hanyou's head as the youkai snapped at him while he passed, missing his good right arm by more than a foot. It was so incredibly stupid, he wondered briefly if he'd damaged his logic functions without knowing it. But, there was a very good chance it would work.  
  
The hard part would be not getting busted up beyond repair in the process.  
  
Still, if it saved Kagome. . . his priorities were indisputablely written in his codes. The risk to his own well-being was acceptable, if Kagome would be kept safe.  
  
'Let's just hope this thing doesn't keep its brain in its ass,' he prayed silently before launching his next attack.  
  
The youkai saw him coming, and obligingly caught him between its heavy jaws. New 'pain' signals erupted from Inuyasha's side and midsection, where the thing's steel teeth worried at his skin. He did his best not to pay attention to them as he deverted all his energy to his good right hand. That was the easy part.  
  
The tingle beneath his claws grew to a prickly heat, and he saw the faint glow in his fingers become a brilliant light. Then he struck at the roof of the youkai's mouth. The thin metal casing exploded inward under the force of his blow, and the hanyou felt his hand surrounded by a thick mesh of fiber optics and silicon boards. The thing was so simple that it didn't even have chemical components in its brain. Grabbing a fistful of the thin wires, the hanyou began tearing out the youkai's higher neural units.  
  
Within second, he felt the monster shudder in response, its teeth clamping down harder on his middle, bending the cage that protected his own internal systems.  
  
Then, it went still.  
  
Inuyasha grimaced as a quick wave of relief was followed by all the complaints of his abused body, and again at the sharper 'pain' inputs his left shoulder sent out as he wedged it against the inside of the youkai's mouth in order to pry its jaw open. There was no help for it. His right arm didn't have the leverage he needed.  
  
Grudgingly, the hinge opened, and the youkai's mandibles moved enough for Inuyasha to squirm free. With a sigh, he dropped to the ground.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kagome thought her heart would stop when she saw Inuyasha trapped in the youkai's mouth, caught between its teeth.  
  
When he freed himself, and landed with a sort of tired grace, she was torn between the desire to run up and hug him, and the urge to beat him senseless for making her worry about him. Didn't he even care that she didn't want him to get crushed? That she had been certain he was dead?  
  
She just stared at him for a long moment, until she really saw what the fight had done to him. The sight of the ragged lacerations the monster's teeth had left on him banished her confusion, replacing it with concern. She ran to him, hardly realizing that she still carried Shippo or the shocked anti-youkai activist that followed after her.  
  
Inuyasha looked up, saw her coming, and his face twisted into a scowl. It was not his habitual scowl, but a narrow eyed, taut lipped expression that would have stopped Kagome in her tracks in any other situation. Now she didn't even register it, only the way that his ripped shirt showed the deep cuts on his torso and low on his left bicep, which themselves revealed the glossy muscles under his skin. An abrasion on his left cheek was deep enough to see the dull shine of the metal framework of his face.  
  
Kagome stopped a few feet away. Unsure what to do next, she could only watch him as the damage to his artificial skin oozed a thick, clear liquid. Never before had it been so obvious that he was not human, and never before had it mattered less. The injuries looked painful; Kagome felt tears welling in her eyes just looking at them.  
  
"Why didn't you run?" the hanyou demanded, suddenly freeing her of her thoughts. "Are you a complete idiot? Do you want to get killed? Because if you do, keep right on like this and you shouldn't have long to wait!"  
  
"Oh god, Inuyasha," Kagome said, hiccupping a small half-sob. "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault you're hurt."  
  
"What?" he asked, his frown vanishing. "What the hell? Why are you crying? It's not like it matters."  
  
"Why wouldn't it matter?!"  
  
"Guys, I want to go home," Shippo broke in. "I don't want to be here anymore. We should go home."  
  
Inuyasha nodded, but Kagome shook her head in denial.  
  
"No, we have to go see Miroku," the girl said loudly. "I don't know if he can fix those or not, but he might know someone who can."  
  
"I'm fine," the hanyou protested. "I don't need that worthless pervert's help. I can fix this myself."  
  
"Are you sure?" the girl asked skeptically. He 'looked' very beat up.  
  
"Of course I am," he grumbled. "What about the woman?"  
  
Only then did Kagome remember Hiraikotsu Sango standing behind her, wide eyes fixed in shock on the both the girl and the Companion hanyou who were arguing in the shadow the industrial youkai, which still loomed over them. Her face was blank with shock.  
  
"You alright, woman?" Inuyasha asked gruffly.  
  
Sango shook her head as though to clear it, but her gaze remained blurry. "What are you . . . ?" she whispered to no one in particular.  
  
"She doesn't look too good," Shippo observed.  
  
"She's in shock," Inuyasha agreed.  
  
Kagome caught her lower lip between her teeth, gnawing on it unconsciously. Finally she decided, "Can you carry her to the hospital, Inuyasha?"  
  
"Keh," the hanyou grunted, looking away guiltily. "Why wouldn't I be able to?"  
  
"Then let's get going."  
  
Kagome watched as Inuyasha picked the young woman up and slung her over his right shoulder, and didn't miss the wince that passed over his features. "Inuyasha, put her down," she commanded. "Don't carry her like that. And lift your left arm."  
  
Inuyasha complied, sulking as he set Sango down on the cracked asphalt, then stood up straight.  
  
"Well?" the girl prompted. "What are you waiting for?"  
  
His left hand twitched, and the wince from before turned into a clenched jaw. His arm remained at his side.  
  
"Bitch!" the hanyou snapped, throwing up his other arm in defeat. "Alright, it's damaged. Happy?"  
  
"Of course not!" Kagome shot back. "Why didn't you tell me? And just 'who' is the idiot? We're going to see Miroku, and that's final."  
  
"What about her?" He gestured at the young woman, now blinking vaguely at the ground.  
  
"We'll take her to the hospital first."  
  
"Do you want me to carry her or not?"  
  
Kagome made a sound of disgust and indicated that yes, he should carry her. Shippo clung tighter to her neck, and she calmed down a bit as she stroked his back comfortingly. Taking a deep breath, the girl struggled to regain control of her (understandably) frayed nerves, and started walking toward the hospital.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Naraku watched the fight through the eyes of other youkai linked to his network. He saw the hanyou disable his creature with a gambit that was either pure genius, or absolute, unalloyed stupidity. He saw the protesters who had gathered to demonstrate in front of the cafe Kikyo had targeted in her campaign against the self-same hanyou as had destroyed the industrial youkai.  
  
He also saw the activists running headlong from the scene, and the chaos that sprang to life in his youkai's path. He watched as what had been an isolated protest turned into pandemonium spreading like wildfire through downtown Tokyo. He watched as the frightened people became angry, and destructive. What had started as a few hundred people with placards turned into thousand running amuck.  
  
The hanyou was still functional, but then, Naraku hadn't really planned on having that particular toy of his take care of him. It had been meant to add to the chaos, and if anything, the hanyou's presence had only made it serve that purpose more admirably. Now witnesses would tell the story of how two youkai had gone wild.  
  
Naraku smiled to himself as he watched the riot slowly spreading outward, like ripples of water in a pond. All told, everything had gone very well.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: There you are. Chapter 18, and the outcome of Inuyasha's first real fight, earlier than I though I'd have it done, too. I hope it turned out well, and that the logistics all made sense. If they didn't, I apologize.  
  
That's all for today. Remember to review.  
  
Until next time. 


	19. Complicated Circuit

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Jelly beans for all of you. Sorry I took a little longer than usual to update. It's been a hectic week.  
  
Disclaimer: I still don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
It was afternoon by the time Kagome and her youkai made it to Miroku's, followed by a dazed and rather subdued activist. By the time they had reached the hospital, the state of the city was apparent, and injured were already trickling in. The waiting room was full of people, and the nursing staff was working frantically to make preparations for the estimated numbers yet to come. They had known that what they were seeing was only the beginning. Kagome hadn't even been able to find a doctor. A middle-aged nurse with a face like an English bulldog had pronounced Sango not in danger, and gave her a sedative.  
  
Kagome had encouraged the other girl to come with them when they left. She hadn't felt comfortable leaving Sango behind drugged.  
  
The bell over the door rang when Kagome herded her little group inside. Sango looked around at the assorted youkai bits with the same detached fascination she had shown everything else since she'd taken those pills. Miroku was not in his customary spot this time, and for a moment Kagome was afraid he wasn't there. The girl's eyes kept traveling back to Inuyasha, flicking over his torn clothes and ripped skin. Every time she looked, her heart sank a little farther, guilt squeezing her heart a little tighter. He had been damaged protecting her. It was her fault.  
  
At least the injuries didn't look as bad once she'd relaxed a bit. She would have sworn that they were worse when she first saw them. She wondered about the fluid that seeped from his wounds. Machines didn't bleed, but it looked that way, with his clothing slowly soaking up. . . whatever it was.  
  
"Miroku!" the girl shouted, a little nervously. What should she do if he wasn't here? Should she wait? Or should she go home, and see if Inuyasha really could repair himself?  
  
"I still don't see why we need the help of this walking hard on," the hanyou muttered loud enough for everyone in the room to hear clearly.  
  
"I resent that," Miroku said, coming down a narrow flight of stairs behind the counter. He lived in an apartment above the shop. "I am a gentleman."  
  
Inuyasha grunted in response.  
  
Kagome set Shippo down, trying to ignore the way Miroku raised one eyebrow in inquiry. He was justified in wondering why she was here with both her youkai, one of them obviously damaged, and a well known anti-youkai activist. He'd want an explanation later, she was sure, but there were more important things to take care of first.  
  
"Can you fix Inuyasha?" Kagome asked without preamble.  
  
Miroku blinked twice. For him, that was quite a display of surprise. His dark eyes went back to Inuyasha, taking in the superficial damage. "I don't know," he said after a moment. "I wouldn't know where to begin with his skin. As far as I know, no companies produce it anymore. What sort of internal problems does he have?"  
  
"My shoulder isn't operational," the hanyou said. "Can you manage to fix a joint?" His voice was harsher than usual, drawing Kagome's attention back to him. She took in his thinned lips, the tight set of his jaw, and the tension that pervaded his posture.  
  
Could it be that hanyou felt pain? What would the point in that be?  
  
Miroku was not so vain that he met Inuyasha's challenge. "As I said before, I don't know."  
  
Inuyasha sighed heavily. "I'll talk you through it."  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kagome watched with a sick curiosity as Inuyasha directed Miroku to cut the skin behind his shoulder blade in two long incisions. The flesh parted smoothly before the scalpel, opening the hanyou's inner structure. She didn't know what she was seeing, but the sight turned her stomach. She could hardly believe how calmly Inuyasha was telling the young man how to proceed, even though the muscles in his face tightened from time to time, and he hissed through clenched teeth when Miroku began probing between two bent edges of metal.  
  
The girl winced in sympathy with every inch his once flawless skin was cut, and grimaced at the dislocated joint they found underneath.  
  
"I think I can fix this," Miroku proclaimed after running his finger gingerly over the afflicted areas. "You're shoulder's out of the socket, and one of your, er, bones, was bent a little. I can bend it back."  
  
"Shut up and get to it then," Inuyasha told the young man through gritted teeth. Miroku left to get some of his tools, giving Kagome a look of long suffering innocence as he went.  
  
Kagome moved to sit next to Inuyasha, noting the way his ears swivelled to follow her movements even though he seemed entirely oblivious to her otherwise.  
  
"Are you alright?" the girl whispered to him. Her curiosity was tainted with worry. He looked like he was hurt. She knew he felt emotions, but did he feel physical sensations as well? Wouldn't that be more of a hindrance than not, if he had to sacrifice himself for his owner. Kagome stumbled over that thought. It was hard to think of Inuyasha belonging to anyone, but her mind returned to her real question, like water running to lower ground.  
  
Only a little more than a week ago, she would have said giving a youkai the capacity to experience pain was both impossible and absurd. Now, however, she wasn't so sure. This Taisho hadn't wanted to make youkai that only served their masters' purposes. He had wanted to create life from a machine.  
  
It wasn't inconceivable that such a man would endow his masterwork with the ability to recognize some physical sensations as unpleasant.  
  
Seconds stretched out and it became clear to the girl that Inuyasha had not intention of answering her question. Then she saw something that pulled her out of her mentation; the scrape on Inuyasha's cheek was fading away. Already the metal that had been visible along his cheekbone had vanished behind what appeared to be new, pink skin.  
  
Kagome squeezed her eyes shut, sure that her eyes were playing tricks on her, but when she opened them again, she still saw the same thing. And the gashes on his torso 'were' getting smaller.  
  
"You're healing," she blurted.  
  
"So?" His gold eyes cracked open, dark and limpid. Pained.  
  
"How can you be healing?"  
  
"Keh." He shook his head. "What are youkai made out of these days? Do you have to repair every little scratch?"  
  
"You didn't answer my question."  
  
"Hn. My skin repairs itself. That way I only have to get outside help when there's internal structure damage."  
  
"Like your shoulder," Kagome said, understanding somewhat. "But how?"  
  
"Why should I know?" he asked, annoyed.  
  
"I'm sorry." The guilt came back with a vengeance. If he felt pain, like she seriously suspected he did, then it was worse than she thought. Not only had she damaged him, she'd 'hurt' him as well. She reached out and appologetically traced the pink line of his upper arm where a deep laceration had sealed closed. The skin twitched under her fingers, and Inuyasha hissed through his teeth.  
  
"I'm sorry," Kagome repeated, pulling her hand away quickly. "Can you feel that?"  
  
"Of course I can feel that!" the hanyou snapped, pulling roughly away from the girl. "I'm a hanyou, not a fucking mannequin. I'm not fa--" he swallowed whatever was going to come after that, looking down so his face was hidden behind a curtain of ivory-white hair. His ears were laid flat against his skull. Kagome felt a stab of nausea, and a sinking certainty that she knew what he was going to say.  
  
"Inuyasha," she whispered softly, not sure how she could correct her slip of the tongue. The exact words she had used came back to her: I don't want something fake. 'Oh gods. . .' She leaned closer to the hanyou, hoping that proximity might say something her mouth couldn't quite shape.  
  
Kagome jumped at the sound of someone clearing his throat rather loudly. "I hope I haven't interrupted something," Miroku said wryly. "But it would probably be better if we finish up here before you two continue your. . . conversation."  
  
"We weren't doing anything, pervert," Inuyasha growled, his face still covered by a spill of bangs.  
  
"Of course not," Miroku agreed with a slightly lewd grin. "And even if you were, it's none of my business."  
  
Heat rushed into Kagome's cheeks, and she knew she was blushing furiously. She huffed, scooting farther away from the hanyou. "You better get going," she said faster than she meant to. "What do I owe you?"  
  
Miroku's grin widened. "I think you could start with how you came to my shop with a broken hanyou and a doped up Hiraikotsu Sango. After that, we'll see."  
  
*~*~*  
  
Sango felt as though she was floating, but slowly, inexorability, she was being drawn back to earth. The feeling that something was very much out of the ordinary was leeching into her consciousness. She just wasn't sure what it was yet.  
  
Her gaze slid over her surrounding, never seeming to stick. She was in the back room of a store. One that sold youkai parts. She blinked, trying to figure out why that should be important. Unfortunately, her thoughts refused to go where she directed them, instead wondering with her eyes, and landing briefly on the small, childish fox youkai who was fidgeting with his tail nervously. The sight of him brought on another pang of wrongness, but once again she couldn't figure out why.  
  
Her attention drifted on, taking in the room's other occupants. One was a girl, a little younger than she herself, with raven black hair and what would have been a pleasant face if it weren't twisted with a worried frown. Sitting a little away from the girl was another youkai, this one with long white hair and a pair of mobile dog-ears on his head. Behind him was a young man with dark hair wearing blue and purple.  
  
Something about the girl and the white haired youkai stirred Sango's memory. Slowly, she recalled the rally, and the rogue youkai that had attacked. This white haired youkai had beaten it, then he and the girl, his owner, had taken her to the hospital, where that short, unpleasant woman had given her two pills to take. . .  
  
'What'd she give me?' the activist asked herself. 'Valium, probably. That, or that stuff they shoot bears up with in the circus.'  
  
There was a sharp snap and a startled yelp from the white haired youkai. That sound, sort of a brittle crack, shot through the fog around Sango's brain.  
  
"Excuse me," the young woman said, breaking into the youkai's vicious cursing. "Would someone please explain to me what's going on."  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: That's all for today. I realize it's a little shorter than most of my chapters, but hey, it's better than nothing, right? Feedback is always appreciated. That means review, people. Tell me what you liked, and what you didn't. If you have questions, I will do my best to answer them, as long as it's not a spoiler.  
  
Until next time. 


	20. Tin Man

A/N: Sorry this one took so long. This is actually the second version of this chapter. I wrote it before, and didn't like it, so I spent a couple of days playing with it, got frustrated, and finally decided to scrap what I had and start over with something different and (hopefully) better. Thanks for your patience.  
  
Here we go!  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. Should that change, believe me, you'll be the first to know.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Sesshomaru watched Rin out of the corner of his eye as the girl stared raptly at the television. Thus far, he had yet to discover a solution to their problem. Were he capable of experiencing such a thing, he would have thought he was becoming vexed with it. His codes were unfortunately clear on this, however: he must obey his mistress, unless her immediate safety was at stake.  
  
The program Rin had been watching was suddenly interrupted by a news bulletin. The girl crossed her arms over her chest and pouted a little, before shrugging it off and changing the channel. The next station was the same. An anchorman in an hideous red and navy blue striped tie was in the middle of delivering a 'special announcement.'  
  
". . . at this point, reports are unclear as to the actual cause of the disturbance, but witnesses say that a pair of youkai interrupted a anti- youkai demonstration. Channel 13 news is lucky enough to have an exclusive recording of. . ."  
  
Sesshomaru wasn't really interested, only listening to the man's babble with half an ear, until the anchorman's face was replaced with shaky footage of a pair of youkai fighting in the streets of Tokyo. One was a mammoth, disgusting thing, the kind used mostly for demolition and clearing land. The other, however . . .  
  
The other was. . .  
  
'He should have been recalled decades ago,' Sesshomaru thought, finally turning his attention to the television. The video was of poor quality, probably filmed on a hand held camcorder, but the image was more than clear enough to make out the figure of the other youkai, or rather, the hanyou. His long white hair and golden eyes alone were enough to identify him. Those traits had been the calling card of Inutaiyoukai before the death of its CEO, Taisho. But the face was what stuck in Sesshomaru's mind, so reminiscent of another face, but that one had been framed with jet-black hair, and had human ears and human eyes.  
  
Sesshomaru's lips pressed together, and that something inside him twitched, once again trying to click into place, then stilled.  
  
So, Inuyasha was still alive.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Sango would never have thought she could get queasy watching someone fix a youkai. The things were machines. She would have said that she'd sooner feel sick watching someone change a car's oil than fix a youkai. Yet, watching the young man introduced to her as Miroku carefully bend the metal back around the ball of Inuyasha's shoulder joint, her stomach twisted uncomfortably.  
  
It didn't help that the youkai in question's face was taut in an expression of suppressed pain. Why on earth would a robot look like that? And as realistic as this youkai was, the look was disturbing.  
  
As Miroku worked on the youkai's shoulder, the girl called Kagome explained how Sango had ended up with them here. The other youkai, the fox-child, added comments from time to time, but the story was really very short. The girl worked at the burned out cafe. She had been going there to see the damage and talk to her boss. The youkai were hers, and the white haired one was a Companion. When she had ordered it to help, it had done so.  
  
After the fight had ended, she had her youkai carry her to the hospital, where the head nurse on duty had apparently given her a very strong sedative and sent her on her way. The city center was rioting, but, according to the news, the disturbance was now contained.  
  
All this more or less matched up with Sango's own jumbled memories, but it didn't answer her real question. After Kagome had finished, the older girl could only stare at her in disbelief. Sango herself could not guarantee that she'd be so understanding if their positions had been reversed. She would like to think she would have helped the other girl, but. . . she very much doubted that she would be so natural about it. How did this girl manage it?  
  
Finally the activist asked, "Why?"  
  
Kagome blinked as though the question had never occurred to her. "What do you mean, 'why'? What else was I supposed to do?"  
  
"You could have got your ass away like I told you to," the youkai muttered, its brilliant yellow eyes fixed on its owner. "You could have listened to me, and not put yourself in a fucking idiotic situation."  
  
"I'm sorry, Inuyasha," the girl said guiltily, her shoulders slumping.  
  
Sango looked from one to the other, another kind of confusion growing, like an itch in her brain. Did Kagome just apologize to her own youkai? To her own property? 'I think I missed something here.'  
  
The youkai snorted rudely, then hissed through its clenched teeth as Miroku's grip on his pliers slipped. "Oh, how clumsy of me," the young man said with perfect innocence. "I ought to have been paying more attention."  
  
An uncomfortable silence followed. Sango felt her skin crawl as the seconds ticked by, each one dancing up her spine. 'What's going on here?' Now the pair couldn't meet one another's eyes. This was not a normal relationship to have with a machine.  
  
"If you go upstairs," Miroku said eventually, breaking the silence, " you'll see my kitchen on the right. I was about to put on a pot of water for tea. All you should have to do is turn on the stove. Under other circumstances I'd suggest something a bit stronger, but I don't think that would be a good idea. I'm just about done here, so I should be able to join you in a moment."  
  
Sango nodded gratefully. When she stood, all the blood in her body rushed out of her head, leaving her momentarily dizzy, but she recovered quickly.  
  
Miroku's apartment above his shop was small, and more or less what she would have expected of a bachelor. It wasn't a complete disaster area, but cleaning very obviously wasn't a priority, and a stack of cardboard boxes next to the trashcan proved that half the young man's diet consisted of take-out bentos. Judging from the dirty dishes in the sink and the wrappers in the trash, the other half was ramen noodles and Dr. Pepper.  
  
Sango wrinkled her nose. She 'hated' Dr. Pepper. Then it struck her how ridiculous she was being. A girl and her youkai had just saved her life, and brought her to a complete stranger's apartment, and she was examining the contents of his garbage. Next she'd be going through his medicine cabinet!  
  
She found the knobs for the gas stove, turned on the back burner, checked to make sure there was water in the pot, and leaned against the counter to wait for her host.  
  
A bit of color out of the corner of her eye drew her attention to a magazine with her picture on the cover. The girl looked at her own face for a moment, then turned the magazine so she could read the cover. It was an anti-youkai publication.  
  
Why on earth would this guy have that kind of magazine?  
  
Out of curiosity she flipped to a dog-eared page and found herself faced with the article on her. She vaguely remembered giving this interview. It was one where she went into great detail about how her family had been killed. The reporter had been a real bitch. . .  
  
There was a picture of her talking to another activist, an older man who was a professor at a local college. The photo was taken from behind, but Sango's face was in profile since she was turning to talk to the old man. Next to the picture, scrawled in the margin, were two words she couldn't quite make out. The guy's hand writing left something to be desired.  
  
Squinting, Sango looked closer and tried to make out the note. An instant later she figured it out.  
  
'Nice ass.'  
  
"Oh, he better be talking about Mr. Ashuri."  
  
*~*~*  
  
Inuyasha stifled another cry as Miroku gave a finishing tweak to his shoulder. 'For fuck's sake,' he thought grimly, 'I understand that they wanted us to be careful not to damage ourselves, but this is a little much.'  
  
"There you are," Miroku said, smoothing the skin back into place. "Don't move around too much. You'll heal up quicker that way."  
  
"I know that," Inuyasha gritted. It was really hard to be patient when his shoulder was sending that particular sensation shooting through his nerves. It seemed to travel up and down his spine. Thankfully, now that the damage was taken care of, the feeling was already fading.  
  
"Thank you," Kagome told the young man. She always remembered to say thank you and be polite. It was like second nature to her. She probably would have thanked the idiot if it were her own shoulder he was fiddling with.  
  
"No problem," Miroku said, smiling that wry smile of his, as though deep down everything was just a little bit entertaining to him. Then the smile changed to a suggestive grin. "I think I'll try to make our guest feel more at ease. I do expect a little more information out of you two later."  
  
Inuyasha snorted, but Kagome nodded. The girl looked tired. She was tired. He could smell it in her scent, and see it in her half-limp posture. He could even hear it in the steady, lazy rhythm of her heartbeat.  
  
Miroku gathered up Shippo, earning some loud complaints from the brat, and left Inuyasha and Kagome sitting alone in his workroom. Kagome looked up to watch him go, but she was still slumped. Once he was gone she turned to the hanyou and caught her lower lip between her teeth, chewing on it.  
  
Inuyasha worked his shoulder experimentally, ignoring the protests from the newly repaired joint. Despite the needle sharp shots of 'pain,' the arm moved as smoothly as ever. It didn't catch at all, no matter how much he rotated it. Damn, maybe he'd have to thank Miroku too.  
  
"How's your shoulder?" Kagome asked, her voice low and gentle, and laced with weariness.  
  
"Not quite good as new, but in a few hours. . ." he shrugged and didn't wince at the twinge it gave him. "How 'bout you?"  
  
"Me?" the girl asked, starting. "But I wasn't hurt."  
  
"Yeah, but you're still exhausted."  
  
"Am not," the girl said, dropping her gaze to the floor. "You're the one who got hurt."  
  
Inuyasha shook his head. "I thought we went over this. That's not important."  
  
"But it is important," the girl protested. "It's important to me. I don't want you to get hurt for me."  
  
"I said it doesn't matter," Inuyasha told her again. "It's what I'm made for. I'm programmed to do that. If I get a little busted up, well, it's better than you."  
  
"But you wouldn't have gotten hurt if I had run like you told me!"  
  
"Why are we still talking about this?! It doesn't matter," the hanyou couldn't completely keep the feeling out of his tone. "I'm not. . . you know I'm not real."  
  
"I don't think that." She said it so quietly, he wouldn't have even caught it if he had human ears. "I don't think you're fake. I--that's not what I meant."  
  
"What did you mean?" Inuyasha asked, leaning closer to catch the girl's words when she spoke again.  
  
"I meant. . . that I didn't want. . . what. . ." her face was turning pink, especially her cheeks. She wouldn't meet his eyes again, and her words were barely more than breaths of air. "I don't want what you do. . . to be fake. It don't want you to do. . . that. . . because you think I want you to. I want it. . . to come from you. I want it to be real."  
  
The hanyou didn't know how to respond to that. She thought he'd been pretending? Just going through the motions because it was what he was made to do? How did he tell her that it wasn't like that? While he was physically capable of faking--going through the physically responses without any of the desire or stimulation a human male would need--he had never needed to. Neither with Kikyo, nor with Kagome.  
  
But he didn't know how to tell her all that, so he did the only thing he could think of. He closed the distance between them and brushed his lips lightly against hers.  
  
She froze for a heartbeat, and he was scared she would push him away, but instead she laid her hands on his chest and kissed him back. Her mouth opened for him without having to ask for it, and she slid her tongue against his, artlessly drawing him deeper. He pulled her closer to him, hoping she understood what he was trying to tell her but couldn't put into speech.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: That's it for today kids. Call me evil if you want, but I actually gave you an extra hundred and some odd words in this one, just to get up to the kiss. Hope everyone enjoyed the new chapter, and sorry again for taking so long. I'll try to do better with the next one.  
  
Until next time. 


	21. Kaazana

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Glad you were all so happy with the kiss. Ha! I finally got it in.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Kagome had never been kissed like this before. Hojo had kissed like he was afraid she was going to bite him if he didn't do it right, and Eiji with a blatant disregard for her comfort. Inuyasha kissed like he wanted to open her up and make her feel him all the way to her toes. He didn't far miss either. The tiny part of the girl's brain that wasn't lost in the feeling of his mouth working against hers realized that he was made to do this. The rest of her ignored that part, thoroughly absorbed in 'what' was happening and not giving a damn 'why'.  
  
Too soon he pulled away, leaving her breathless and her lips tingling. She would have protested, but then he began feathering light kisses on her closed eyelids, her cheek, the top of her head, the tip of her nose, her earlobe; an involuntary shiver went through her whole body when he buried his face in the crook of her neck and inhaled deeply. She could feel the heat coming off of him, and hear the soft rasp of his breath. How could she not believe in them when he was holding her so tightly?  
  
"Kagome," he whispered in her ear, "is this real enough for you?"  
  
The girl pulled away enough to look in his eyes. She wanted to see his eyes right now; to see how they looked when he kissed her. She could always read so much in those eyes. She smiled when she saw them, warm and glowing softly from within, like sunlight shining through summer honey.  
  
Kagome nodded, her throat too tight to speak. He leaned into her a little, not quite touching her. Every nerve ending in her mouth was already alive with anticipation of his next move.  
  
Then the moment was ruined as Shippo came barreling down the stairs on all fours, screaming, "Save Miroku!"  
  
Kagome pulled out of Inuyasha's arms, her face burning hot. "What'd he do that he needs saving?"  
  
"I can imagine," the hanyou said with a growl. "I suppose we should get up there before that activist kills him."  
  
Kagome picked up Shippo and followed Inuyasha up the narrow flight of stairs. She wondered vaguely if Inuyasha really wanted to save Miroku, or if he just didn't want Sango to kill him without getting a front row seat. Or maybe he wanted to kill the young man himself, for either directly or indirectly interrupting them twice today.  
  
Kagome sighed. If Inuyasha did decide to break every bone in Miroku's body, she wasn't sure she could work up the enthusiasm to stop him. Shippo was giving her a strange look, and the girl felt her blush grow even more fierce.  
  
When she came out of the stairwell, it was to the sight of Sango standing ramrod straight over a fallen Miroku, whose face sported a perfectly shaped red handprint. ". . .never, under any circumstances, touch me again, you-- you unbelievable pervert."  
  
"Surely under the proper circumstances, you wouldn't be so harsh." Miroku said, rubbing his cheek. "If you were gushing blood. . ."  
  
"Then I can very well bleed to death!" the young woman shouted, and Kagome blinked, looking from one to the other.  
  
"I don't know what you did," Inuyasha said, shaking his head, "but you probably deserve it."  
  
"What 'did' you do?" Kagome asked, setting the little fox youkai in her arms down on the kitchen table. "It must have been pretty bad it she'd rather die that have you touch her."  
  
"I merely complimented her form," Miroku said defensively, finally picking himself up off the floor. "And my hand may have wandered a bit south of where I intended to put it, but that's hardly a killing offence."  
  
Hiraikotsu Sango's face was scarlet by the time the young man finished his explanation. In a tight, controlled voice, she clarified, "He said I had a nice ass and grabbed a handful of it. And he's some kind of weird stalker or something, because he's got just about every article that's been written about me!"  
  
Kagome and Inuyasha both turned to look at Miroku, who was still the very image of innocence. Kagome wished she could pull off that guileless look half so well. It would have saved her a lot of trouble in high school, but this time it wasn't going to work. Sango wasn't going to fall for it, and Kagome knew him too well to buy into the act.  
  
"It's a professional curiosity," he said at last.  
  
"Bullshit," Inuyasha barked. "Can't you afford real porn?"  
  
"It's not porn," the young man argued.  
  
"Yeah, that's in the--"  
  
"I have those articles on Hiraikotsu Sango because I'm trying to find a rogue youkai," he interrupted, discretely bopping Shippo on the head to shut him up. Three sets of eyes locked on Miroku expectantly. Sango's stance relaxed slightly, but she didn't back down entirely. A frown creased her brow. "Explain."  
  
Miroku took a deep breath and did just that.  
  
"My grandfather died a longtime before I was born," he began. "I never knew him, but I've heard of him since I was born. He's something of a family hero. We've been involved in youkai for generations. My grandfather was a troubleshooter for a small company called Kazaana that produced custom youkai. Nothing on the level of Inutaiyoukai, but a good company none the less.  
  
"One day, Grandfather's company was given a business proposal unlike any they'd had before. The client didn't want a single youkai. He wanted a single unit that other youkai could be networked to. This central unit would be able to control all of the other models in its network, even though they were each individuals.  
  
"The product they made had one of the most complex computers made to date in its head, so it could handle the level of input it would have to deal with. It was really a brilliant system. And Grandfather had endless problems with it. In the end, however, it was completed, and the whole company was congratulating themselves for getting the thing finished. It was going to put Kazaana on a whole new level.  
  
"But before the buyer claimed the product, it went berserk, apparently turning rogue."  
  
"So you think this thing is still out there?" Kagome asked, unsure what to make of this story. She had known Miroku for years, but this was the first she had heard of it. Actually, he didn't like to talk about his family, aside from his "bear my child" line.  
  
"I'm sure of it, but that isn't the whole of it. You see, the prototype, called Naraku, destroyed the company when it left, both physically and financially. It destroyed the offices, investors pulled out, and the company had almost all of it's assets tied up in this unit. Since Naraku was lost, the buyer never paid to cover the expenses of making it. And the expenses were prodigious.  
  
"But what's more, the people who were involved with the project started dying. It was like a curse that sought out anyone who knew about Naraku, and what it was capable of." Miroku's gaze dropped to the ground, his eyes hiding behind his bangs. "Eventually, everyone associated with the project was gone. They died in car accidents, or were mugged and killed, or sometimes they just disappeared. Then others started dying. People who hadn't even worked for Kazaana. Friends, relatives, children. . . it didn't matter. If your name could be connected to that company, you were dead.  
  
"To the best of my knowledge, I'm the only person who still knows of Naraku. If it finds out about me, then it will come for me too. And you can only hide from something like that for so long."  
  
"You think the youkai is trying to kill everyone involved with it?" Inuyasha asked, one eyebrow raised skeptically.  
  
"I am sure of it," the young man said in a resigned tone. "That's why I have to find it."  
  
"So rogue youkai aren't just a legend," Inuyasha said, fixing Miroku with a sharp amber glare.  
  
"No, they're not."  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kagura walked down the now eerily derelict streets of Tokyo, her bare feet making no sound on the pavement. The riot hadn't completely died down, but it had moved on, leaving this neighborhood a sort of bizarre urban wasteland. Broken glass from windows and bottles littered the street along with assorted garbage, as well as things which had been dropped and forgotten in the chaos that this place had witnessed earlier in the day. All sorts of things, from a battered stereo to a perfectly preserved doll, were strew about haphazardly.  
  
The youkai picked her way toward her target standing in the shadows of a side alley. She appeared to be a young woman with an unnatural gleam to her pale skin and an unhealthy dullness in her dark eyes. If she noted the scene around her, she gave no impression of it.  
  
Kagura didn't like the Replica. The fey, cold woman was less like a person than a faded memory. There was no echo of the life the original must have possessed. But then, Kagura was fairly confident she wouldn't have liked the real thing, either.  
  
This Kikyo gave a ghost of a smile when the youkai stopped in front of her. The expression never reached her eyes.  
  
"You were meant to face the hanyou," Kagura said, wondering why she had been sent to tell the Replica this. If she was linked to Naraku's network, then there was no need to speak to her in person. Of course, if she was linked into the system, she couldn't have disobeyed Naraku in the first place, right?  
  
Which meant that for one reason or another, Kikyo was not wired in like the rest of them. The military youkai filed that away with all the other facts she'd probably never have a use for.  
  
"I'll meet Inuyasha in my own time," the Replica said, her voice surprisingly expressive. "I have things I wish to do before facing him."  
  
Kagura frowned. "That wasn't in the plan."  
  
"So? It wasn't my plan to start with," the other replied, shrugging. "I'm not ready to see him yet."  
  
"You're not having second thoughts, are you?" Kagura asked, smiling slyly. She would not mourn if Kikyo proved worthless.  
  
The Replica moved quicker than the youkai could have predicted, one hand clamping down on her throat while the other pulled back and acquired a pinkish glow. The energy gathering in her palm made the air around them reverberate with an ugly hum. Yet, what truly shocked Kagura was the look that filled Kikyo's empty features. Her delicate mouth became a hard, unyielding line, and her eyes narrowed threateningly.  
  
"Tell your master that I will deal with Inuyasha in my own time," Kikyo hissed, a sound like a knife being sharpened. "If he doesn't like it, he can do his own dirty work. I'm not ready yet."  
  
Kagura didn't move. The power in Kikyo's hand wasn't one she recognized, but even without feeling it, she knew she would be destroyed it the other woman chose to use it one her. Her drive for self-preservation was screaming at her.  
  
This was a weapon designed to be used against youkai. To fry their circuits. To overload their fragile brains. To destroy them entirely.  
  
After a moment, Kikyo released her, and Kagura backed away three steps before she even registered what she was doing.  
  
What the hell was this thing?  
  
"Tell your master," Kikyo said, that metallic sting still in her voice. "Go. Now."  
  
Kagura hesitated only a moment, then fled.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Whew. More exposition. Hope you all liked the chapter. More coming soon.  
  
Until next time. 


	22. Slipping the Collar

A/N: I am now over 300 reviews. Readers and reviewers, you all absolutely rock. I'm very glad everyone (or at least, everyone writing me reviews) still likes this story. And I finally fit in a little exposition for you. There's more in this chapter. Thanks for the feedback.  
  
And I apologize if I seem to dwell on cooking in this chapter. There is a sound scene construction principle behind it, but I was also hungry when I wrote it.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Kagome volunteered to cook a late lunch for everyone, since neither she nor Sango had eaten since early that morning and it was pushing four in the afternoon. Much as she wanted to go continue her. . . 'conversation' with Inuyasha, she knew they couldn't leave yet. Miroku had just confessed that some crazed youkai was out to kill him, for heavens' sakes. She couldn't just leave after an announcement like that.  
  
She saw Inuyasha watching her and unconsciously licked her lips. When she realized what she was doing, the girl blushed and hid her face in one of Miroku's cupboards under the pretense of searching for something edible. Not surprisingly, what she found was mostly instant. The young man had never been able to handle cooking something that required more than two steps. However, Kagome didn't find two-step curry rice and Poptarts too appetizing.  
  
Finally she settled on a few packages of stovetop chicken ramen and a bag of frozen mixed vegetables. It wasn't ideal, but Kagome was pretty sure she could work some magic with it.  
  
At least her cheeks were now approximately the right color.  
  
"You were saying?" Kagome prompted Miroku, who had fallen silent after telling them about his 'curse'.  
  
The young man shook his head and a faint, humorless smile turned his lips. "So now I'm looking for Naraku, to kill him, before he gets to me. I don't think he knows where I am yet, but it's only a matter of time."  
  
Kagome put a pot of water on the range to boil. She thought about adding a little salt to speed it up, but decided against it when she remembered how much sodium was in ramen noodles.  
  
"So," the activist asked, her anger forgotten. "You think that Naraku is the youkai that killed my family, or something like that?"  
  
"Something like that," Miroku agreed. "Though I doubt it was actually Naraku who killed your family. Probably some youkai in his network."  
  
"Hey," Inuyasha said from the dining room. Being a machine, he wasn't hungry, and the kitchen was crowded enough with three bodies in it anyway. "How do you know it was Naraku?"  
  
"I don't know for sure. But I've found a pattern to his killing."  
  
For a long moment, the only noise was the faint, tinny sound of the water just beginning to boil. Kagome froze opening one package, the little packet of seasoning forgotten in her fingers. Her attention was fixed on the young man next to the refrigerator, looking smug and solemn at once. She didn't even breathe as they waited for what he would say next.  
  
"Are you going to say something?" Inuyasha abruptly broke the tense air. "Or are you just going to wait there like an idiot?"  
  
"You have no sense of the dramatic," Miroku accused the hanyou.  
  
"Keh."  
  
"Get on with it," Sango said, rolling her eyes and adding something else Kagome didn't catch under her breath.  
  
The girl went back to making lunch. If she were Miroku, where would she keep a wok?  
  
The young man sighed. "Alright, since none of you appreciate timing, Naraku has been killing employees of Inutaiyoukai."  
  
"He's been what?" Sango gasped.  
  
"You're father was the chief of security, right? That's why I think it was Naraku." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Many of Inutaiyoukai's employees have died over the last fifty years. Not so many that most people notice it, but it's made the tabloids a few times. Most people blame anti-youkai activists." Miroku grimaced at the irony of that. "But at least three of them were said to have been killed by rogue or unregistered youkai. 'The Star' suspected corporate espionage."  
  
"But, why? He didn't have anything to do with the products. Why do you think this thing would kill him?" The young woman asked, her tone caught between skepticism and hope. She couldn't believe what Miroku was telling her, but she desperately wanted to. Kagome felt a stab of sympathy for her.  
  
"Where's your cooking oil?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Cooking oil," Kagome repeated, and Miroku blinked once, seeming only then to notice the pans on his stove. Then he waved at a cabinet. "Thanks!"  
  
"What was I saying?"  
  
"Why Naraku killed people who worked for Inutaiyoukai, moron," Inuyasha reminded him harshly.  
  
"I don't know that yet. All I know is that he is." Miroku made a helpless gesture. "I can't figure out why he attacks where he does. If I knew that, then I might've been able to stop him. If I knew what he was after. . ."  
  
"So he just kills people at random?" Sango asked.  
  
Miroku nodded. "As far as I can tell, there's no rhyme nor reason to it. He murders a designer, then a janitor, an engineer and a programmer, then the kid who works in the parking garage. It doesn't make any sense."  
  
Kagome frowned. Something was tickling the back of her mind. Something she couldn't quite remember, but couldn't ignore. She dumped the dry noodles into the sauce pan, then returned to the frozen vegetables in the wok. 'What was it. . .?'  
  
"You don't have any theories at all?" Sang asked grimly. "He just kills them for no reason? First a supervisor, next a copy boy, without any clue as to why he did it?"  
  
"I think, maybe, he's looking for something," Miroku said. "I just wish I knew what."  
  
No one spoke for a while after that. The ramen cooked quickly, and Kagome strained the noodles and dropped them in the wok with the vegetables and the pre-mixed seasoning, pan-frying them in silence. She couldn't put her finger on what was bothering her. Something, something, something. . .  
  
"Hey, Miroku," Inuyasha said, interrupting the girl's thoughts. "You said Naraku was responsible for offing a whole bunch of these Inutaiyoukai people. What about a secretary?"  
  
'Oh god.'  
  
"I don't have the list memorized," Miroku told him, brow furrowing, "and I couldn't tell you if some of the deaths really are Naraku or just bad luck, but it's possible."  
  
'Kikyo.'  
  
Kagome dropped the chopsticks she was using to stir her pan-fried noodles. Kikyo, who had died fifty years before, had worked at Inutaiyoukai. She had been killed. Kagome could almost hear Kaede again, telling her in her no nonsense way ". . . not so much older than you. . ."  
  
'Oh god.'  
  
"Kagome?" Sango said, passing a hand in front of the other girl's eyes. "You there?"  
  
"What? Oh, yeah. Fine," Kagome answered, realizing as soon as the words were out of her mouth that the response didn't make sense. Hastily she recovered her chopsticks and stirred the ramen.  
  
"Lunch it ready."  
  
*~*~*  
  
Sesshomaru stood at the Nakamura compound's front gates, staring at the exit as though the wrought iron barrier held all the secrets of the universe. The day was slowly fading from late afternoon to evening, the sky turning that suggestive shade of pale blue that comes before a long sunset. The security lights were already beginning to flicker on one by one.  
  
There was nothing in the youkai's codes that kept him from leaving, provided he came back. There was nothing that said he couldn't do whatever he liked while his mistress had no use for him, and the woman was currently wrapped up in a haze of opium smoke. She would have no call for him until the tomorrow morning at the earliest, he was certain of it. There was nothing keeping him here.  
  
Except for the fact that he shouldn't be considering leaving. Except for the fact he was a youkai, and youkai weren't supposed to motivate themselves into personal errands, like tracking down some prodigal hanyou.  
  
Except for Rin who was playing a video game when he left her. Except for the fact that she wouldn't be able to protect herself if Nakamura Kyosuke decided to come after her again.  
  
Except the fact that a strange, bitter tightness constricted his chest when he moved to leave, and thoughts of the mute girl as she sobbed tearlessly into his shoulder.  
  
The gate didn't shine any light on Sesshomaru's dilemma. Perhaps, if he found that worthless hanyou, perhaps then he would understand.  
  
He wasn't even sure where that thought had come from. It made to logical sense. Sesshomaru had no reason to believe that Taisho last and favored creation should know anything that would help him.  
  
There wasn't even a reason to think he needed help.  
  
Rin's bruises surfaced in his memory, lurid and gruesome in a way no amount of overt violence could match. He felt his expression soften. He had promised her that he would protect her. He wouldn't go back on that word. It was every bit as binding as the codes that compelled him to obey Ryoko. Perhaps more so because he had chosen this, instead of having it installed.  
  
But why Inuyasha?  
  
To that, Sesshomaru had no good answer, save that the thing in his had responded to seeing the footage of the hanyou's fight. He just. . . felt. . . that he should seek out Inuyasha. Almost as though he had something the youkai needed.  
  
'Is this your doing?' Sesshomaru wondered, thinking for the first time in decades of Taisho. The man's rough face lit up with incongruous delight in his thoughts. Sesshomaru remembered that time. It had been the first time Inuyasha's neural units were activated, with the monitor gages all green to show everything functioning within normal parameters. 'I wouldn't put it past you, tricky bastard.'  
  
Sesshomaru sighed. If this was the legacy of his maker, then there was no fighting it. That man had always managed to win out in the end when he was alive. Why should it be any different now that he was dead?  
  
With a smooth leap, Sesshomaru cleared the fence and found himself outside his owner's property when he hadn't been told to go there. That thing in him gave a shiver; the first time it had ever moved without provocation.  
  
It was the freedom, he realized after a few unhurried steps. It was the fact he could just leave, go anywhere he wanted, and never come back. He didn't know how, but he was sure he could do it. Or he could have done it, if not for his promise to Rin.  
  
It wasn't his programming that was stopping him. Suddenly he knew that it hadn't been holding him that tightly for a long time now. And today it had grown so loose he could slip it. The only thing that held now was his word, and the fact he had nowhere else to go.  
  
The youkai blinked, his only outward sign of surprise, but inside his mind went totally blank with the revelation.  
  
'When did this happen?' he asked himself as the shock faded. 'How?'  
  
'Is this what happens when youkai turn rogue? Do they just one day look, and discover that there's nothing keeping them?'  
  
Sesshomaru resumed his walk, still at the same leisurely pace, but now resolved to find Inuyasha and find out what Taisho, or whatever other forces were at work within him, had planned.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: There you are. That's all for today. Hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves.  
  
Until Next Time. 


	23. From the Mouthes of Babes

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, everyone, and for putting me on your favorites lists, and basically just for reading. I was very glad to hear that some of you like the way I'm writing Sesshomaru. I will explain more later on how youkai turn rogue, so just be patient.  
  
Alright, I think it's only fair to tell you all that I MAY not be able to update as often as I like in the near future. This is not for sure, and I will certainly try to get up two chapters a week, which has been my goal from the beginning, but I my life is probably about to get far more complicated and more stressful, and I'll very likely have to try to get more hours at work. In any event, consider yourselves all fairly warned.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. If I did, I'd get rich pimping him out to fangirls and then I wouldn't have my current problems. Oh, I'm not bitter or anything. . .  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Kikyo knew this building. The stained off-white exterior. The narrow stairs. The levels of apartments, each just like the one on either side of it, but each also with tiny flashes of personality to set it apart from the others. Her blank eyes took in potted plants and chained bicycles without any flicker of response, finally coming to stop on one door in particular.  
  
She had lived here once, long ago. She knew decades had passed since then. Now she watched from the outside, seeing the life that ought to have been hers through the glass. She felt a cold whip-strike of anger through her insides as she remembered the girl she had seen through the window. That happy, silly little girl who was living in her home, who had moved out her things and replaced them with her own. The girl who had somehow come into possession of Inuyasha, along with everything else that had belonged to Kikyo.  
  
Another flash of anger, this one frigid enough to shatter her bones, if she still had them. The feeling coursed through her like a flood, overrunning all its banks and freezing her to the core, but her metal endostructure remained unaffected.  
  
What had happened between she and him? She couldn't pull it out of the broken pieces of her memory. She recalled numbers. . . something. . . a man, his name escaped her. . . and this unreasoning anger toward Inuyasha. He had said he loved her, once. A machine capable of love; now she new just how unrealistic that was. She shook her head.  
  
She would make Inuyasha pay for lying to her and for betraying her, but first she had to know what she was missing.  
  
That girl would have to disappear as well. It wouldn't do for her to continue living Kikyo's life.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Sango ate slowly. She had to admit, Kagome had done very well considering what she had to work with. It was not a culinary masterpiece by any measure, but then, Miroku's kitchen wasn't precisely well stocked. Miroku was eating with enthusiasm, and the younger girl was obviously preoccupied with something. She played with her food more than she ate it and her can of Diet Coca Cola had been forgotten long ago.  
  
The youkai watched the humans as they finished their meal. The activist found their attention unnerving. If she didn't 'know' better, she would have sworn both of them were impatient. Shippo was fidgeting with his tail, and Inuyasha was staring at Kagome with an unconscious intensity.  
  
Sango didn't blame Kagome for picking at her food. If someone had been watching her like that, she wouldn't be able to eat much either.  
  
"You don't have any idea what Naraku wants?" Sango asked when the silence became too much for her.  
  
Miroku set down his Dr. Pepper and sighed. "I truly wish I did," he said seriously. It was hard to tell if he was really that solemn, or if it was all for show. "I hoped you could shed a bit more light on the subject."  
  
Sango shook her head. "I have no idea why anyone would want to kill my father. He didn't have anything a youkai might want. Assuming for the moment that youkai 'can' want anything."  
  
"What would a youkai want, though?" Kagome joined the conversation.  
  
"A youkai could want anything," Inuyasha said grimly. "It just depends on its programming."  
  
"What would a youkai like Naraku want?" Kagome finally set her chopsticks down.  
  
"If I knew that, I'd know where to start," Miroku concluded, then finished his drink.  
  
"Um," Shippo poked in. "You said he was made to network youkai, right? Do you think he wants more youkai in his system?"  
  
Sango felt as though her eyes would fall out of her head, she was so surprised to hear the little fox speak. Judging from the other expressions she saw around the table, she wasn't alone either. None of them had expected the smaller youkai to speak up. It made sense, though. If a computer were capable of desire, why not want exactly what it was made for? If Naraku was made to control lesser youkai by putting them in his network, why wouldn't he try to do just that?  
  
"That's not a bad thought," Miroku ceded once he recovered from his shock. "But that leads us to another troubling question."  
  
"And what's that?" the Companion youkai asked sardonically, but his ears perked up to catch the young man's next words.  
  
"What did Naraku's buyer intend to do with all those youkai once he had them all organized under Naraku's control?" Miroku pinched the bridge of his nose in a tired gesture. "I'll have to look into it."  
  
Shippo was smiling smugly, his fox tail swishing from side to side with excitement.  
  
'Youkai don't get excited,' Sango reminded herself firmly. They didn't get excited or depressed. They didn't feel hurt over their failures, nor pride in their accomplishments. They didn't feel pain, or bite their lip while someone fixed them, and they didn't display contradictory emotions. They didn't look sad. And they didn't come upstairs looking homicidal because some pervert had unwittingly interrupted a conversation (?) between them and their owner.  
  
'I need some aspirin,' the young woman thought, her brain trying to find a way to keep the behavior of these two youkai consistent with everything she already knew about them, and failing miserably.  
  
"Changing the subject entirely," Kagome's voice broke through Sango's thoughts and she looked up to see the girl addressing Miroku. "Have you found anything else out about Inuyasha?"  
  
"Not really. Why?"  
  
"Well," Kagome shifted uncomfortably in her chair, then continued, "I was wondering how he could beat that other youkai. No offence, but you're not made to protect me from that." The last was directed toward Inuyasha himself.  
  
No offence? These people just got weirder and weirder didn't they?  
  
"Keh," the white haired youkai grunted, turning up his nose. "If you wanted to know that, you should've asked me."  
  
"Alright, how did you beat that youkai?"  
  
Sango did not like the grin that crossed Inuyasha's face. His gold eyes gleamed just a little manically, and one fang actually caught on his lower lips. It wasn't that the expression was exactly frightening, but it was disturbing.  
  
The youkai held up one hand, flexing the fingers so his knuckles cracked. It might have been the young woman's imagination, but it looked like his claws grew longer. The tiny ribbons of light that began playing along the tips were not her imagination, though, nor was the sudden, oppressive scent of ozone. It wasn't electricity. Sango didn't know what it was.  
  
"With this," Inuyasha told Kagome, the tone of his voice matching his smile.  
  
"Companions youkai aren't supposed to have energy weapons," Miroku said, eying the trails of light that followed the slight movement of Inuyasha's hand. He turned toward Kagome then, "I'll see what I can find. I'll be checking out Inutaiyoukai anyway."  
  
Kagome sighed. "Call me if you find anything out, alright?"  
  
"You can count on it," the young man told her.  
  
"Call me, too," Sango interrupted quickly, scanning the area for something to write her phone number down on.  
  
Both other humans were suddenly staring at her as though she'd suddenly sprouted a third arm or an extra head. "Well," she said defensively, "Naraku might have killed my family. I have a right to know."  
  
"Of course," Miroku said smoothly, the first to recover. "Of course. If you'll just write your digits down over here. . ." He crossed the space between them and lead her to an organizer on the counter, his hand resting lightly on her shoulder. Sango cast a glare at the offending appendage, then leaned over the little electronic pad to enter her home phone number.  
  
She had just finished when she felt something touch her hip lightly, only to then caress the curve of her ass with greedy fingers. Sango clenched her fist so hard that the thin plastic stylus she held in her hand snapped cleanly in half. She spun around quickly, hitting the man with her elbow and knocking him back to the ground.  
  
"I told you not to touch me!" the young activist fumed.  
  
*~*~*  
  
The sky was turning pearly yellow when Kagome finally led her youkai out of Miroku's shop. The sun was still well above the horizon, but it was already sinking below the artificial city skyline. The pale light reflected off the mirrored windows of the tall buildings downtown, lighting up the dark glass. Thin, high clouds were already starting to blush a faint pink.  
  
The girl paused for a moment to appreciate the view. Sunsets like this one were rare. She almost wished she had a camera.  
  
When she turned away from the sunset, she saw Inuyasha watching her, a surprisingly mellow glow in his amber eyes. The light touched his hair with color, as though the strands had never really been white at all, but were really made out of spun crystal. The sight got under her skin in a good way.  
  
The girl shook her head, laughing at herself internally. Her thoughts the hanyou had all been far too romantic since that kiss, and the sunset wasn't helping any. If Shippo hadn't been perched on her shoulder, she wasn't entirely sure she could have been held responsible for her actions.  
  
'Damn robot. How does he do this to me?' she thought, but without any venom. Kagome smiled at him tiredly. "Are you two ready to go home?"  
  
Inuyasha nodded, while Shippo clung to her neck and cried, "I never want to leave home again!"  
  
Kagome had already walked a lot that day, and she felt it. Her feet were sore--she would have worn different shoes if she'd known that she'd be on her feet most of the day--her knees ached, as did every muscle between her toes and lower back. The first thing she'd do when she got home was take a nice, hot bath.  
  
Unbidden, her 'shower fantasy' of Inuyasha popped back into her head. Wet hair and water streaming over smooth skin. . .  
  
'He kissed me.' Kagome realized for the umpteenth time, and without thinking about what she was doing, she raised a hand to touch her lips. 'I wonder if maybe, eventually, he'd be willing to do that. God, am I willing to do that?'  
  
'I wonder if he's waterproof?' It was a stupid thought, and it broke her line of thought entirely. Inuyasha was giving her a strange look, and the girl felt all the heat in her body rush to her cheeks, undoubtedly turning them bright red.  
  
"Would you like a ride?".  
  
"Are you sure your up to it?" Kagome asked nervously.  
  
The hanyou smiled an unexpectedly gentle smile. "Of course I'm sure."  
  
The girl nodded and let Inuyasha pick her up piggy back. Shippo yelped in protest as the hanyou took off, running quickly home. The sky turned from pale yellow to lavender, the pink clouds growing brighter, and the eastern horizon turned indigo.  
  
Kagome saw when the first star peeked out. Except, it wasn't really a star. The brightest light in the night sky was the planet Venus. The girl closed her eyes tightly and made a wish.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: That's if for today. Sorry this one took a while to get up. I'll try to finish the next chapter this weekend, so it will hopefully be up by Monday. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru meet. Finally.  
  
Until next time. 


	24. Forerunner

A/N: A number of people seem interested in whether or not Kagome's shower fantasy will ever come true. You'll all just have to keep reading to see.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. Too bad. . .  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Inuyasha was getting closer. Sesshomaru wasn't sure why he knew, but he could feel it. The edges of the empty space inside of him resonated with it, humming like a tuning fork. The sensation was peculiar, like and unlike the other times when whatever was dormant inside him had stirred. The pulsing was there, but gentler, as the incomplete pathways tried to connect.  
  
The youkai didn't know what was going on, but he was becoming increasingly sure it had something to do with Taisho. If something concerned both Sesshomaru and the hanyou, it almost had to be traced back to him; he had made both of them, after all.  
  
Of course, their respective importance to their maker differed. Sesshomaru was a youkai, created out of Taisho's drive to create the perfect companion, whereas Inuyasha was made out of the unparalleled folly of genius.  
  
In the end, despite whatever else could be said of him, Taisho had been human, and as flawed as the rest of them. It was only natural that he should favor the hanyou he had gifted with the face of his own son over the youkai he'd made for profit.  
  
Sesshomaru's thoughts left a sour taste in his mouth, like ash on his tongue.  
  
Inuyasha would reach him soon, then he would learn why he was drawn here. He could feel the boundaries of the void thrumming steadily stronger, each beat bring new cells to life. Did this have something to do with the hanyou? Was he the source of this bizarre feeling, or was it just a symptom of something else entirely.  
  
Of one thing he was sure, what happened now 'was' different from the other times this had happened. Smoother. More natural. His other systems didn't have to strain to support whatever it was that was trying to happen in him.  
  
Before long the hanyou appeared around a bend in the road. He was carrying a young woman on his back, making an unlikely scene as he bounded along, white hair flying behind him and clothes showing the signs of his earlier confrontation.  
  
'Such a busy day,' Sesshomaru thought with some disgust. Vaguely he wondered why this silly creature had such an affect on him.  
  
Then that thing inside him that had attempted time and again to turn over before, that thing which had been blocked every time before, moved. This time, nothing hampered it. With an inaudible click, the thing fell into place. In the emptiness new codes sprang to life, supplanting Sesshomaru's own innate commands.  
  
If he were less in control of himself, the youkai would have staggered under the sudden onslaught of changes as his programming seemingly discarded old information, adapting quickly to the new codes. And in the its wake, his mind was left buzzing with sensations which, while not entirely new, were totally unfamiliar in their strength.  
  
Heat seemed to seep into him at the sight of the hanyou, again his systems charged as though for a battle when there was no overt threat. These new feelings seemed centered around a tight, bitter knot in his chest.  
  
Through this, a name for the new program rattled loose from his memory: Tenseiga.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Inuyasha skidded to a halt when he recognized the figure standing under a flickering yellow streetlight. The youkai somehow managed to appear at once stiff and casual. It was a talent that Inuyasha remembered, though he wouldn't have minded forgetting it. No, he wouldn't have minded forgetting Sesshomaru in the least. He felt the question coming off of Kagome, but ignored her to study Sesshomaru critically.  
  
In the fifty years he'd slept, youkai had started doing very odd things. It couldn't hurt to be careful.  
  
Sesshomaru hadn't changed at all so far as he could see, though. His refined features were schooled into a bland expression. Every strand of his silvery white hair was in place, and his clothing was both pristine and terribly elegant, even down to the way his trousers broke over his shoes. His eyes were hooded cynically.  
  
Just seeing him again was irritating, as though no time had passed since he'd last met the youkai. That time, and every time before it for that matter, Sesshomaru had baited him, poking at him and pushing him. If the bastard weren't so damnedably cold, Inuyasha would have thought he got some kind of sick pleasure from trying get a rise out of him.  
  
Slowly, the hanyou let Kagome drop to the ground behind him, taking Shippo with her. Careful to keep between her and Sesshomaru, Inuyasha took a few steps forward.  
  
"Why the hell are you here?" he asked, unwilling to play games with the youkai.  
  
"I was rather hoping you could tell me that," Sesshomaru said, deep voice perfectly unruffled.  
  
"Why would I know?" Inuyasha snapped. That superior tone could raise his hackles even after fifty years.  
  
Sesshomaru gave a small, condescending smile. How Inuyasha had hated that smile. . .  
  
"I guess you didn't feel it, then," the youkai said evenly.  
  
"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked softly from behind him. He could hear the concern in her tone.  
  
"Stay back," he told her firmly, then to Sesshomaru, "I don't know what you're talking about, or what you want. There, satisfied?"  
  
"I don't think I am," Sesshomaru replied. He raised one hand and studied his claws. He almost looked curious. Almost. If you could consider him capable of showing curiosity. Inuyasha was fairly sure that his emotion simulator was nonexistent.  
  
"What you did against that youkai on the news, you shouldn't have been able to do that," he continued, still looking at his nails. "You used an energy weapon. How did you do that? How did you even fight it?" He looked up then, fixing Inuyasha with a scrutinizing gaze. "Your woman wasn't in immediate peril. You should have run away."  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"I suppose I'll just have to see for myself," Sesshomaru said, his smile fading.  
  
"Keh. You can sure as hell try," Inuyasha growled back, flexing his fingers.  
  
"Inuyasha!" Kagome shouted at him. "What's going on?"  
  
"I'll explain later," he hissed at her, pushing her away from him and barely dodging Sesshomaru's sudden attack. The youkai paused, like he was considering what he'd just done.  
  
"It looks like you're not the only one who can do things they shouldn't be able to," Sesshomaru said, more to himself than anyone else.  
  
Inuyasha took a wary stance, watching for his opponents next move. That first attack had been fast. Faster than he would have expected. This would not be like his fight with the industrial youkai before. This time he was paired against someone his own size, and at least as quick as he was. Inuyasha wasn't sure he could have moved that quickly from a standing start. . .  
  
He felt the power surge through his hands as it had before, and smirked. At least he should be able to hurt Sesshomaru.  
  
The youkai choose that moment to attack again. Even though he was ready for it this time, Inuyasha was still surprised by his speed. Almost quicker than the eye could follow, Sesshomaru was coming at him from the left side. Inuyasha was forced to dart back to avoid having his cheek split open. There was no opportunity for a counter attack before Sesshomaru struck again. Inuyasha was forced to deflect the blow with his forearm. He couldn't even dodge, the move was so quick.  
  
He should be able to hurt Sesshomaru, if the bastard would just hold still long enough to hit him. Shit.  
  
Sesshomaru was relentless, but finally Inuyasha was able to counter him, bringing his claws up in an awkward underhanded attack that left ragged slashes of light in the air between them. The youkai jumped clear easily. He paused again to look at his own claws.  
  
"It seems you have me at a disadvantage," he said noncommentally, his burnished gold eyes on his dull claws. When he looked up, that tiny, mocking smile was back. "Then again, perhaps not. Shall we see?"  
  
Inuyasha felt a cold moment of presentiment as Sesshomaru extended his right arm, his hand held loosely before him. His eyes drooped nearly closed, the only outward sign of concentration. 'What the fuck is he doing?'  
  
Then light came from Sesshomaru's hand. Not from his claws, like Inuyasha's, but a long whip of power that coalesced seemingly out of the evening air itself.  
  
This was not good. This was very not good. The whip--or whatever it was-- gave Sesshomaru far more reach than Inuyasha had. If the hanyou was going to get a hit in, he'd have to get inside Sesshomaru's range, which would probably be tricky. To say the least.  
  
"Let us see just what else I'm capable of," Sesshomaru said in the same infuriating monotone, raising his hand dramatically.  
  
Inuyasha stepped aside, letting the first lash singe the pavement at his feet, and again so it cracked an inch or so away from his shoulder. He was aware of Kagome off to one side and behind him, closer than he would have liked, but still out of the way. He only hoped she stayed that way. As always, her safety was his first priority.  
  
In his moment of distraction, Sesshomaru scored his first hit, opening a line across Inuyasha's leg just above the knee. The 'pain' signal seemed to leak into his leg, infecting the nerve pathways around the wound at the same time it shot a wave straight up his spine. Inuyasha bit down on a particularly virulent curse, leaning back to avoid the follow up strike, unable to keep it from grazing his chin.  
  
The hanyou fell backward, catching himself on one knee. Looking up, he saw Sesshomaru lifting his weapon for another blow. The last one.  
  
His mind went blank. He knew he should do something. He just wasn't sure what he could do.  
  
Before the whip fell, arms wrapped around Inuyasha's neck and a body pressed up against his, shielding him. Kagome's black hair filled his vision at the same time her warm, slightly spicy scent hit his nostrils, sharp with anxiety.  
  
"What the. . ." was all he could manage, then Sesshomaru's arm came down, power laying open the air.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Seconds passed. Kagome held on to Inuyasha as tightly as she could, clenching her teeth and waiting for the blow. But it never came.  
  
Very slowly, the girl opened one eye, then the other, and looked up into Inuyasha's shocked face, then looked over her shoulder to see that the other youkai was just standing there. Just standing there and watching them. His weird light-whippy-thingy had vanished without a trace. The eyes fixed on the pair of them were much like Inuyasha's, but where the hanyou's were bright amber, his had the dim luster of antique gold.  
  
Then Kagome realized she was still clinging to Inuyasha like an idiot. She loosened her hold, but didn't pull away entirely. Who could say what this strange youkai (who looked so similar to her hanyou in some ways) would do to him if she moved away? Who could say why he stopped at all?  
  
Inuyasha put one arm around her waist, but the girl wiggled free of it when he tried to maneuver her off of him.  
  
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he hissed in her ear. Kagome shook her head. Better to let him think she had a good reason, because if she told the truth, he'd just yell at her.  
  
The truth was, she hadn't 'thought' about what she was doing at all.  
  
For a long, tense minute, the three of them stayed that way. It was the youkai who broke it, turning away from them and strolling away as though absolutely nothing out of the ordinary had happened.  
  
"Hey!" Inuyasha called after him, ear flattening angrily against his head.  
  
"I think I've taken all the answers I need," the youkai said, not even looking back. Kagome watched as he moved farther and farther away, and finally vanished entirely down a side street. Once there was no sign of the youkai, she let go of the hanyou's neck, turning for face him.  
  
The girl felt her heart sink when she saw the look in Inuyasha's eyes. She was in very big trouble.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: You should all thank me. I thought about trying to end this chapter with Kagome diving in front of Inuyasha, and making you wait until my next chapter to find out what happened. See how nice I am?  
  
Until next time. 


	25. Ghost in the Machine

A/N: First, I'd like to apologize to anyone who asked me questions (not spoiler type questions, but clarification questions) who might not have gotten a reply. I do try to respond to those questions which won't be addressed in the story itself, but I had a problem with my hotmail account. Hopefully it's all better now.  
  
On the brighter side, most of you are asking precisely the questions I hoped you would be. Don't worry, answers to questions like, Why does Sesshomaru seem so contradictory? What is Kikyo up to? and Will Kagome get to jump Inuyasha in the shower? will all be answered eventually. Also, for those of you who have been waiting so patiently for Nakamura's blood. . . Soon, people.  
  
Thanks for all the reviews.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. Not even a little piece of Inuyasha. . .  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
"What the hell did you think you were doing?!" Inuyasha shouted, louder than he'd intended, but he didn't pay attention to his volume. Fear, anger and relief were pulling together in a volatile alchemy inside him. "You could have been killed? Are you out of your mind?"  
  
Kagome looked down, her eyes hiding behind her bangs, but he could smell the sharp, briny scent of tears, and he saw her fists clench in her lap as she pulled away from him. That smell almost made him apologize, but his heart, clockwork or no, had almost stopped when he thought Kagome was going to take the blow instead of him.  
  
Then she looked up, face flushed red, dark brown eyes narrow with fury despite the fact she was crying freely. "I didn't want you to get hurt!" she snapped back at him. "Do you think I could just 'watch' while some strange youkai tore you to pieces?"  
  
Any thought of ending the argument vanished from Inuyasha's mind. "You would have died," he pointed out.  
  
"But I didn't!" She stood, and the hanyou stood after her. There was no way he was going to lose the advantage of being able to look down at her.  
  
"You had not way of knowing Sesshomaru was going to pull that attack! Dumb luck isn't an excuse. What if it happens again? Hope your fucking fairy godmother shows up to save you?" He shook his head forcefully.  
  
"I don't think I want to do that again if you're going to yell at me for saving you!" the girl screamed, putting her hands on her hips and leaning forward aggressively.  
  
"Good! I don't want you doing anything like that again! That's the point."  
  
"Why are you yelling at me? I was only worried about you."  
  
"But I'm supposed to protect you, not the other way around," Inuyasha gritted out, no longer shouting. "And I'm yelling because you scared me shitless, you idiot."  
  
"And I'm not supposed to be scared? I should just sit on the sidelines like a good little girl and watch? What kind of person do you think I am?" Kagome asked shrilly. "You can't expect me not to worry about you! And you can't tell me what to do!"  
  
"I can when you start doing stupid, dangerous things like that. That bastard might have killed you, Kagome. Don't you understand that?" Inuyasha was shaking now, the force of so many conflicting emotions too much to contain. They hadn't been this strong before Kikyo turned him off. He'd always felt, but not like this. This might break him.  
  
"So it's okay for you to risk your life, but I can't do the same?" Kagome asked him archly.  
  
"Yes!"  
  
Kagome's knuckles turned white, and she opened her mouth to retort, then apparently thought better off it, deliberately unclenching her balled fists and biting her lip. It was wasn't the distracted way she sometimes chewed her lower lip, either. Inuyasha thought she might almost be drawing blood the way her teeth were clamping down on the pink skin.  
  
Then, without warning, she turned away from him, walked over to where Shippo waited with wide, frightened eyes, and started marching off in the direction of her apartment, leaving Inuyasha behind without another word.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Inside her head, Kagome was fuming. How dare he tell her that? Not that she should have expected someone as arrogant and insensitive as Inuyasha to understand that she couldn't just watch. How could she have forgotten what he could be like? Even this morning, the first thing he had done after fighting that youkai was reprimand her for not running away.  
  
And because she hadn't his shoulder had been damaged, she remembered with a twinge of guilt.  
  
'Oh gods, was that only this morning?'  
  
So much had happened in one day, and so much seemed to have changed in her relationship with the hanyou. He had started to open up to her, and she had found out about the gross miscommunication which she had caused with the word 'fake.' Inuyasha had been in not one, but two fights. He had yelled at her, kissed her without any real explanation, and then he had yelled at her again.  
  
The fight with Sesshomaru hadn't been at all like the one with the industrial youkai. He hadn't even seemed interested in Kagome. The white haired youkai's attention had been entirely for Inuyasha.  
  
'Wait a second, how did Inuyasha know that other youkai's name?' Kagome asked herself. She couldn't remember him ever saying it. Which meant he already knew the other youkai.  
  
"Don't worry, Kagome," Shippo said comfortingly. The girl looked down at the little fox-child in her arms and nearly blushed. She'd forgotten she was carrying him. Shippo continued, "He's just a moron. You should get rid of him."  
  
"I don't want to get rid of him," Kagome told him, sighing. She knew it was the truth. She hadn't even thought of it until Shippo mentioned it. She was mad at Inuyasha, but that didn't mean she was going to kick him out. "I just wish. . ."  
  
"Wish what?" Shippo prompted when she didn't finished her sentence.  
  
"I guess I wish I knew what went on in his head," she finished. That wasn't what she had been about to say. She didn't even know what she'd meant to say, really. Maybe that she wished he wouldn't act like he was so much less important than she was?  
  
Shippo made a face. "Why would you want to understand that? I doubt there's too much up there."  
  
The girls shook her head. "I'll talk to him later, after he calms down a bit more."  
  
The fox youkai gave her a confused look, then shrugged.  
  
*~*~*  
  
In a small, almost forgotten corner of Naraku's complex, a strange youkai bent over what looked like a mirror cradled in her lap. Her reflection stared back at her, blank faced and colorless, with eyes that were nothing but empty orbs.  
  
Kanna was nothing. Or rather, she was almost nothing. A ghost in a machine, her makers had called her, the result of a failed attempt to advance youkai personality engines. She had been deemed nonsentient and scrapped, until Naraku found her and imposed his will on her. Once she had been lent a purpose, her abilities became indispensable.  
  
Kanna could tap into databases, hack networks, monitor Internet activities all without leaving a trace of herself behind. No other youkai could do that, even those made specifically for it. The best they could do was cover their tracks, but as their consciousnesses moved through those infinite, abstract masses of data, they left trails, like moles digging through the dirt. They all left holes behind them.  
  
All but Kanna. Kanna passed through it all without upsetting a single thing.  
  
She had become invaluable to Naraku, and, in the odd way she registered everything, she knew her value.  
  
For years her master had set her to watch any and everything she could find concerning Inutaiyoukai. So it was, sitting and staring blankly at her own lifeless face, that Kanna noticed someone burrowing avidly though Inutaiyoukai's databases and public announcements, scouring through the files Kanna sat sentinel over.  
  
The disturbance was not great, and obviously made by a youkai meant to search for information, but it hit again and again at subjects Naraku was very protective of.  
  
Without batting an eyelash, Kanna contacted her master and showed him what she'd found.  
  
'Good, Kanna,' she almost heard Naraku's voice through their connection. 'Follow it. Find out what it is and where it comes from.'  
  
Kanna nodded her head and did what she did best. She watched, unnoticed.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Inuyasha had said the wrong thing, and he knew it. The problem was, he didn't have a clue what it had been. He went over the argument again in his head, and couldn't find a point where his reasoning had been flawed.  
  
"So it's okay for you to risk your life, but I can't do the same?" Kagome had asked him, and in his memory he heard the hurt in her voice that he hadn't paid attention to when he was angry before.  
  
"Yes!" he had told her, which was true. After a fashion. Damn it, isn't that the way it was supposed to be?  
  
So maybe he had an idea where he'd made a mistake, but he still didn't see what was wrong with it aside from the fact it had upset Kagome.  
  
"And I'm yelling because you scared me shitless, you idiot." He winced inwardly. That could have been worded better, but that didn't make it less true. When Kagome had thrown herself in front of Sesshomaru's whip, she had terrified him. He had never, ever been scared like that before.  
  
And then he had told her that she didn't have the right to be scared to.  
  
But why should she be? He was a hanyou. He was the one supposed to get hurt if someone had to be. It was one of the things he was made for. She was human. That made her more important. And she was Kagome, which made her even more important than just being human. It made her. . . her. She was not supposed to get hurt for him. Every part of him was sure of that.  
  
He watched her back as she opened the door to her apartment. She hadn't said a word to him since she ended the argument. Enough time for the cut on his chin to close. Soon there wouldn't even be a scar, but she still wasn't talking to him.  
  
Yes, he had definitely said the wrong thing, and he was beginning to think he knew what that had been, but why still eluded him. Was he that important to her?  
  
Shippo leapt out of Kagome's arms and began running around the apartment, making it perfectly clear just how happy he was to be home. Inuyasha saw Kagome smile at the little youkai's display, which had the effect of cheering him up a slightly at the same time it made him jealous. He wasn't the one who had made her smile like that.  
  
Perhaps he should say he was sorry. He still didn't understand what he had said that was so terribly wrong, but he was sorry that he had made her cry. He hadn't meant to do that.  
  
If she had stayed out of the way like she should have, he wouldn't have yelled at her. He would have found a way to beat Sesshomaru.  
  
"Inuyasha," Kagome said, interrupting his thoughts. "Listen, I'm sorry I scared you. I didn't want to do that, but you were going to get hurt, and I just did what came naturally. I didn't think about the consequences."  
  
"But you're not sorry you did it?" Inuyasha asked wryly.  
  
"No, I'm not."  
  
The hanyou turned toward her, looking into her deep brown eyes. How could she fix things that easily?  
  
"Will you promise not to do it again?"  
  
Kagome shook her head negative. "But I'll try not to."  
  
"I guess that's fair," he told her, sighing. "I'll try not to make you cry."  
  
She did smile for him at that, then surprised him by stepping forward and hugging him. After a moment, he put his arms around her shoulders.  
  
"Thank you Inuyasha," she whispered into his chest so he almost couldn't hear her. "But I'd rather you didn't scare me again either."  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: eh. . . maybe not my best. Oh well. That's it for this chapter. Hope everyone liked it!  
  
Until next time. 


	26. Silence is Golden

A/N: As always, thanks for all the wonderful reviews. I am truly amazed by the number of people saying things like "I just found your story today, and I read the whole thing in X amount of time." I am very flattered. I wasn't aware this was such a page turner.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
When Sesshomaru arrived at the gates to the Nakamura house, he still didn't know what he would do about Rin and her father. He didn't know precisely what he could do. The changes in his code had only just stopped writing themselves. The consequences of those changes were still at least partly unknown to him.  
  
He knew he had been able to attack the hanyou when he should not have. He should not have been able to fight with Inuyasha unless he was a threat, but Sesshomaru had been the aggressor. He had used an energy weapon as well, something which should never have even been installed on a privately owned youkai.  
  
But he hadn't been able to hurt the girl when she moved to take a blow in Inuyasha's place. He hadn't been able to kill her, and he didn't know why. It wasn't that he wanted to hurt the girl, but she shouldn't have mattered. He didn't care about her one way or another.  
  
As point of fact, he wasn't even sure why he had attacked the hanyou save that Inuyasha seemed to. . . agitate him.  
  
Sesshomaru shook his head minutely. He was weaving himself a net of words with this thinking. He was a youkai. He could not want. He could not care. He could not be irritated by his maker's last, meaningless creation.  
  
But he did, and he was. He was irritated by Inuyasha, and while he did not care about the girl who owned him, he still wondered about why he had not killed her when he could have. And he still needed to figure out what to do about Rin.  
  
Oddly, Ryoko no longer seemed to enter the equation at all. When Tenseiga had activated, it had removed the last vestiges of obligation toward the woman. Only Rin mattered, and Nakamura Kyosuke because he had hurt her, and would hurt her again if allowed.  
  
He was concerned for the girl.  
  
'Leave it to Taisho to drive his creations mad with a limited vocabulary,' Sesshomaru thought and felt his mouth twitch toward a smile. He should not be 'concerned,' and yet, what other word was there which ought to be applicable to a youkai?  
  
Sesshomaru finally gave up on waiting and jumped lightly over the gate. A few of the security youkai monitored his passing, but since he was allowed here, they didn't set off any alarms. He walked by them, making his way slowly toward the door. He could have moved quicker, but this pace gave him a few more moments to think over what he would do.  
  
'I could leave,' he thought, 'and take the girl with me.' It wasn't a bad idea, but what then? Once the girl was safe, would he leave her? Something inside of him rebelled at the thought. What would he do without a mistress? And how would the girl take care of herself? She was too young to get a real job, and if she was found, the authorities would just return her to this place and her lawful guardians.  
  
He felt a twinge of revulsion at the thought of Nakamura. What kind of man did these things? What kind of man let his wife die a slow death from substance abuse and raped his daughter? There were youkai he could buy if he felt the need to vent his frustration on someone, or if he just wanted a convenient body to fuck.  
  
But if he stayed with the girl, what would he do then? His experience was sadly limited in most respects, and if there was a way for him to support the pair of them, Sesshomaru was not aware of it.  
  
He opened the door and padded up the stairs. He could hear the television in the living room, playing some sports program from the sound of it. A man was rehashing the events of a soccer game in Europe earlier that day. He could also hear snoring, which he assumed was Nakamura himself.  
  
Leaving, however, seemed like the best choice. Indeed, it seemed like the only choice. As long as Rin was with her family, she was in danger. The only way around it was to removed her from the situation.  
  
Now he just needed to figure out where they would go, and how he was to take care of a human girl without any income.  
  
Sesshomaru opened the door to his room and was surprised to find Rin on the bed, sleeping soundly.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Sango got home well after dark. She was sore, tired, and her brain felt like something the relative consistency of cottage cheese. Whether that was from the sedative she'd been given, or just because it had been a very long, very tiring day, she couldn't even begin to guess. All she knew was that bed was calling like never before, and anything else would just have to wait until morning.  
  
The young woman stumbled through her before bed ritual in a daze, and fell onto her mattress face down in an oversized tee shirt. After a few moments, she crawled under her blankets and rolled onto her side.  
  
She had every right to be tired. Her day had started out with a protest, climaxed with a rogue youkai attack, and ended in a conversation that had seemed specifically designed to give her a head ache. Oh, and there was still the drugs. Mustn't forget the horse tranquilizer that those nurses had given her.  
  
And there was Kohaku.  
  
It couldn't have been him. He was dead, and, she hoped, peacefully so. What Sango had thought she saw at the protest this morning didn't change that. Perhaps it was just someone else who resembled her brother, or perhaps it had just been a figment of her imagination. Gods knew, she wanted him alive enough to see him places.  
  
Kagome had tried to help her when she followed her brother's fetch. She had commanded her youkai to fight the rogue--her hanyou, Miroku had explained that part after the younger girl had left. Inuyasha had been damaged in doing so.  
  
Sango almost found herself feeling guilty over that. She knew that Inuyasha was a machine, and a mistake at that, but it was. . . it was just easy to forget that when she was around him. There was something very convincing about him. Actually, Shippo had seemed more real than a youkai ought to as well. Perhaps it wasn't the youkai themselves, but the owner that made them seem so different. Kagome behaved as if the two of them were real.  
  
Who ever heard of someone arguing with a Companion youkai before? Even if he was a hanyou. Sango didn't know much about hanyou, but she was familiar with the attempts. To the best of her knowledge, none of them had been particularly successful. Well, excepting Inuyasha, now.  
  
"Why am I not sleeping?" Sango asked her pillow. Her sluggish brain plodded on though, despite her best wishes that it shut up and let her get some sleep.  
  
Miroku was a mystery as well. How could a man who professed to have a youkai trying to kill him act like he did? With a story like his, she would have expected him to be on her side. She had asked him as much before she left.  
  
"People can be dangerous, too," the young man had said philosophically. "I think most people have a better chance of being murdered for their wallet than being killed by a rogue youkai. Still, I'm not anti-humanity."  
  
"But most humans can't rip your arms off and beat you to death with them," Sango had returned tartly. "Most humans don't have claws, and can't crush your skull with their bare hands."  
  
"No, they can't," Miroku agreed. "They have to buy a gun, or a switchblade, or use a baseball bat. But they manage all the same." Sango had the distinct, unpleasant suspicion she had come out behind in that discussion. What's more, it had planted a seed she didn't really want to consider.  
  
What if the lech was right?  
  
Sango hid her head under the covers and tried to pretend she wasn't still awake. She failed.  
  
Finally, she gave up and got out of bed, fumbling for her slippers in the dark. Standing, she wondered ruefully how it was that she could be dead tired until she lay down, then suddenly her fuddled brain would wake up and start thinking about the most inconvenient things, dredging up memories from before, when her father had been alive and she hadn't had the same opinions she had as an adult.  
  
She walked quietly even though there was no one to wake up, and pulled down the slide ladder to the attic. The dust that wafted down made her sneeze. Sango rubbed her nose and climbed up.  
  
She hadn't come up here in more than two years. Not since her family had been killed, but she remembered where everything was as though it had only been a few weeks. She had played with her brother up here as a child, and the two of them had gotten in trouble for it more than once.  
  
The young woman found what she was looking for in one corner, under the slopping roof beams. It was a little white container, about the size of a mini-cooler, with the Inutaiyoukai emblem in relief on the plastic. It was a storage unit for small youkai, like Shippo. Sango's fingers slid over the grimy plastic, finding a button near the bottom in back. It pressed in with a soft 'snick,' unlocking the unit. Hesitantly she lifted the lid.  
  
Curled up inside was a small, rather feline youkai covered in pale cream colored fur striped with black. Her large eyes were closed as though she were sleeping, and the tips of her two tails covered her nose. She was just like Sango remembered her.  
  
The girl swallowed a lump in her throat, letting her hands travel down to stroke to still youkai. She was just as soft as she had been when Sango had played with her as a child.  
  
After what happened, she hadn't been able to keep Kirara around, no matter how much the little youkai cat seemed to sympathize with her depression. Sango had to deactivate her, but she hadn't quite been able to bring herself to throw her out. She hadn't sold her, and she couldn't scrap her.  
  
'It's just sentimental value,' Sango told herself firmly. 'That's all.'  
  
She gave Kirara one last pat before closing the unit again and going back to bed.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Okay, I'm sorry that this chapter is a little short, but there were only two scenes that could come next, and both of them were way too long. But hey, I worked in Kirara! The thanks for that one goes to my reviewers entirely. It became obvious that you guys missed her, and a few of you were kind enough to give me suggestions on how to work her in.  
  
Until next time. 


	27. End of the Silence

A/N: Alright, I know that Inuyasha and Kagome didn't appear at all in the last chapter, and I apologize in advance, because they won't feature much in this one either. However, the moment many of you have been waiting for has come. . . Well, one of the moments. No shower scene in this chapter, but Sesshomaru confronts Nakamura Kyosuke. I feel a little vindictive saying that I hope you all enjoy this chapter, but hey, I don't like the guy either.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Rin woke up slowly, sunlight in her eyes, the calming presence of her hero near by, keeping the bad things away. She had come here to sleep when he was gone. The bad things happened in her room, but here she felt safe, even when he wasn't here.  
  
The girl sat up and stretched. Blinking away the clinging remnants of sleep, she looked around Sesshomaru's room for the youkai himself. Her hero sat in a chair, his deep golden eyes looking thoughtfully out the window. Rin sat patiently, waiting for him to act. She trusted him to know what to do and when.  
  
She trusted her hero implicitly. He had said he wouldn't let 'it' happen again, and she believed him.  
  
He would not lie.  
  
After a long moment, Sesshomaru shifted his gaze from the window to the girl on the bed. There was no more expression on his face than ever, but Rin could tell immediately that something had changed. It was in his eyes. They were no longer entirely opaque. Now there was a soft glow in them, like candlelight reflected off polished metal. When he spoke, Rin knew she wouldn't have to wait anymore.  
  
"Would you like to leave here?" he asked her.  
  
Rin didn't try to suppress her smile as she nodded vigorously. Her hero was going to take her away, just like she knew he would the first moment she saw him. Just like she'd been praying for him to do since before she could remember.  
  
"Get whatever you'll need."  
  
Rin hurried to obey.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Miroku hadn't realized what time it was until he noticed the sun peeking through his curtains. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to clear his blurry vision. It didn't work. The computer screen was still out of focus, the letters swimming about nonsensically.  
  
Myouga had been searching since yesterday evening for any clue what Naraku was looking for, but the more Miroku thought about it, the more sure he became that the answer wouldn't be found in Inutaiyoukai's files. Or if it was there, neither he, nor the flea youkai would know how to recognize it.  
  
Shippo had been on the right track when he asked if Naraku wanted to network more youkai, and Inuyasha when he commented about youkai doing what they were programmed to do. Just because a youkai had turned rogue, didn't mean it had escaped its codes, or the purpose its makers had instilled in it.  
  
Miroku gave a self-depreciating half smile. It had never occurred to him to ask a youkai what another youkai might want.  
  
His smile faded. If it was true that on some level or another Naraku was still trying to do what he was made to do, then the answers Miroku needed were not in Inutaiyoukai, but Kazaana. Unfortunately, there was very little information left about Kazaana, and even less about its last, failed endeavor.  
  
'Damn it,' the young man thought, turning away from the monitor, 'what was Naraku supposed to do once he had all those youkai integrated?'  
  
He was missing something, he was sure of it. He was missing something so obvious that once he figured out what it was, he'd laugh at himself for being so stupid. He was missing something simple. . .  
  
He'd been awake for twenty-odd hours now, and he could hardly think, let alone come up with the single stroke of genius that would make everything he knew fit together. Miroku shut down his computer and stumbled over to the couch. Maybe after a quick nap he could force some order on all the facts he'd been staring at for the last ten hours or so. Maybe Myouga would have found out something that would help shine the right light on the subject.  
  
What could Naraku want, if he were still at least partially bound by his original programming? What had Kazaana's mysterious investor meant to do with the youkai once it was finished?  
  
There was something there, he just couldn't see it.  
  
*~*~*  
  
It wasn't a long wait before Rin reappeared carrying a small backpack. Sesshomaru eyed the bag, noting how little it carried. Evidently, the girl didn't feel she would miss too many things when she left this place. "Are you ready?" he questioned her. "If there is anything you need, you had better have it now."  
  
Rin nodded, giving him that grin that she somehow managed to find despite everything. It made her look very young, smiling like that. It was such a whole hearted smile. Sesshomaru felt that feeling again, like something hot were filling him, his circuits buzzing with power that wanted to be spent. He wanted to hurt the man who had hurt Rin.  
  
Sesshomaru ground his teeth, fighting to control the unexpectedly strong emotion. So, this was what it was like to feel vengeful.  
  
"Come," he commanded the girl, and led the way out of the room Ryoko had given him that first day. Rin followed him willingly.  
  
At the head of the stairs, Sesshomaru stopped and listened for the sounds of Rin's parents. He could hear Ryoko's unfeminine snoring in the master bedroom, and smell the lingering odor of the opium she had been indulging in the night before. Judging from the slow cadence of her breathing, she was still dead to the world. As for the other, the youkai's senses couldn't find him. After a long moment, he judged that the man must have left the house.  
  
Motioning for Rin to be quiet, Sesshomaru made his way to the side entrance. There were fewer surveillance youkai that way. He wasn't afraid of them, but he wasn't sure how they would respond to their master's daughter leaving without his permission, and the farther he got before anyone realized that the pair of them were missing, the better. Rin tip- toed behind them with exaggerated care.  
  
Sesshomaru realized his mistake he moment he opened the door.  
  
Standing there before him was Nakamura Kyosuke, his arms crossed over his chest. He wore an expensive suit and his hair was greased back, even in his own home. His dark eyes settled on Rin.  
  
Sesshomaru glance over his shoulder to see the girl's reaction. She met her father's gaze fearlessly. There was no hesitance in her expression, only the same confidence in Sesshomaru's ability to protect her. There was no affection either.  
  
"Did you really think you could leave without me knowing?" Nakamura scoffed, casting a pointed glance at an owl youkai perched behind his left shoulder. "I know who comes in and who goes out. And I know who comes back in again."  
  
"I suggest getting out of my way," Sesshomaru said steadily.  
  
"Or you'll what?" Nakamura asked. "I told you before, you belong to me. And so does she."  
  
"And I told you I don't." The youkai said coldly, " Neither does she. I already told you to get out of my way. I don't like repeating myself."  
  
The man's face darkened with anger, his brow lowering threateningly. "Or you'll what?"  
  
The desire to damage this man was slowly building in Sesshomaru. Rin still stood behind him, a steady, expectant presence. This man had dared to hurt her, to use her however he pleased. He didn't understand, though. The girl might be his daughter, but Sesshomaru was the one who chose to protect her.  
  
And that made her his, more than this nauseating man's ability to sire her ever could.  
  
He wanted to make Nakamura pay for what he had done. He wanted the man to hurt a hundred times worse than Rin. For every disgusting transgression, Sesshomaru wanted him to be punished. He didn't just want to kill the man; he wanted the man to feel pain before he left this world. Sesshomaru's sight narrowed, and a red haze tinted his vision. His lips pulled back in a snarl, baring his teeth.  
  
Then the Tenseiga program pulsed, distracting the youkai. Rin was still behind him, waiting to see what he would do.  
  
Sesshomaru willed himself calm. He refused to let himself be ruled by these emotions Taisho had decided to 'gift' him with after so many years.  
  
Nakamura had taken a step back when he saw Sesshomaru expression change. Sweat beaded on his brow. The youkai could hear his heart beating irregularly, and he could smell the sour scent of the man's fear.  
  
He was not worth the effort.  
  
He was, however, still a danger to Rin.  
  
The whip appeared in Sesshomaru's hand with a thought. The man's eyes bulged at the sight. A flick of his wrist and the light whip lashed out, passing through Nakamura's body as though it were nothing at all. The man fell to the ground, lifeless.  
  
"Are you ready to go, Rin?" he asked without looking back. He felt a pang, wondering what look she would be giving him now. Not that it mattered, he supposed. When the police came, they would find Ryoko in her bed, surrounded by all the accessories of her addictions, and Rin would be sent to a foster home somewhere. . .  
  
"Yes, Sesshomaru," a high voice answered from behind him, surprisingly clear even after years of disuse. The youkai half turned to see the girl's face, and saw that while she was not smiling, she still had every intention of following him.  
  
"Come along then."  
  
*~*~*  
  
Inuyasha came alert at the sound of Kagome closing the bathroom door. He stood slowly, but found that all of yesterday's damage had repaired itself. He heard the shower turn on, and wondered about the girl stepping into it.  
  
Where the hell did he stand with her?  
  
The hanyou remembered her lips pressed against his. He would not have thought that he could be so affected by a kiss. He could feel emotions, true, but that did not mean that he expected his own reactions to her touch. . . There were more things about himself he didn't understand than things he did.  
  
He sighed, still with no idea why he did that, and went into the kitchen to start Kagome's coffee. The girl was most certainly not a morning person, he thought wryly. Maybe she should look into some sort of caffeine IV. Then they could start the drip about an hour before she had to face the outside world.  
  
"Inuyasha?" Shippo said, startling him as he jumped onto the counter.  
  
"What?" Inuyasha tried to cover his surprise. The fox youkai rarely spoke to him unless Kagome was involved. Other than that, the two of them tended to ignore each other.  
  
"What do you want?" Shippo asked, angling a sharp green gaze on the hanyou.  
  
"What?!"  
  
"I've been trying to think of what a youkai might want, and I can't think of any reason why Naraku would be killing people like this. Unless he was made to kill people, but I don't think a company like Kazaana would make that kind of thing." He crossed his arms and gave a few short, irritated flicks of his tail. "So what does a hanyou want?"  
  
"Don't be stupid. Naraku isn't a hanyou," Inuyasha said, finally getting over his shock.  
  
"That isn't the point! He's still a machine, so he has the same codes as the rest of us. What does he want then?" Then Shippo's eyes narrowed. "You're the one being stupid. Haven't you even wonder what he wants?"  
  
"Of course I have," Inuyasha protested.  
  
"Well, what have you come up with?"  
  
"Well," Inuyasha huffed, "either he wants to do whatever it was he was programmed to do, or. . ."  
  
"Or what?"  
  
"Or. . ."  
  
"Or he wants to do something else," he finished lamely.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: That's it for today. I hope I haven't made what Naraku's after too obvious. Anyway questions and comments really do help me get the next chapter out quicker, so review.  
  
Until next time. 


	28. Premises

A/N: Okay, incase you're wondering, when I write, I'm always afraid I'm giving away too much, too soon, and as a result, I tend to overcompensate. Looking back, it shouldn't be particularly obvious what Naraku is after, but since I already know, it seems so clear to me. Also, sorry this one took longer than normal to get out. I was sort of stuck.  
  
Thanks for the reviews. I do love them.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
The smell of coffee drifted across Kagome's senses as soon as she opened the bathroom door, even though she hadn't put on a pot before she got in the shower. . . which meant Inuyasha had. Taking a deep breath, Kagome let the strong aroma lead her into the kitchen as she towel dried her hair. She felt remarkably better than last night. It was amazing what eight hours of sleep could do, and now she was clean, rested, and Inuyasha had made her coffee. . .  
  
"Eep!" Shippo's squeak reached her in the hall. "Don't take it out on me! It's not my fault you're a dunce."  
  
"Say that again, twerp," Inuyasha dared in a threatening growl, followed by the sound of feet slapping against the linoleum floor.  
  
. . .She ought to have known it was too good to last. With a tolerant sigh, the girl stepped in to break up the fight. As soon as she appeared, Shippo darted behind her legs to escape the hanyou. Kagome shot Inuyasha a look that stopped him in his tracks before leaning over to pick up the little youkai.  
  
"What's this about?" she asked, lifting Shippo off the ground and balancing him on her hip.  
  
"Inuyasha's trying to take his inferiority out on me, because--"  
  
"I am not!" the hanyou in question interrupted and made a grab for the cause of his annoyance.  
  
"Never mind," Kagome said. "I get the picture."  
  
"So, what are we doing today?" Shippo asked as the girl went to get herself some of that coffee.  
  
"I thought you were staying here from now on?" Inuyasha muttered, folding his arms across his chest and shooting the youkai child a dark glare. His yellow eyes were light and sharp, not the molten gold they became when he was really angry, Kagome noted as she took in his look.  
  
Shippo stuck out his tongue in response. She was happy to see Inuyasha didn't return the gesture in kind.  
  
Taking a careful sip from her mug, she told them both, "Well, first we're going to visit Momma and ask to borrow a some money since it looks like I won't have a job for a little while."  
  
Both youkai blinked. The fact that she still needed to buy food and pay her bills had apparently slipped their minds. Kagome winced, glancing down at the black coffee in her cup. It was more than a little too strong for her taste. Where had Inuyasha learned to brew the stuff?  
  
"After that. . ." she continued, spooning a little sugar into the bitter mix. "After that I'm not quite sure. I suppose I should try to see if I can find out anything about Inutaiyoukai. Or Kazaana. Or Kikyo's death. Or you, Inuyasha. I wouldn't even know where to start."  
  
"Why do that?" Inuyasha asked, brows coming together in a perplexed frown.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Well, I don't mean to sound callous or anything," he paused, shrugging uncomfortably. "It's just that they aren't your problems. Why not let Miroku and Sango deal with it themselves?"  
  
Kagome didn't have an immediate answer for that. She wasn't even really sure if he was asking why she was concerned in specific, or if he just meant 'Why help?' in general. Not that she would have been able to come up with a reply more quickly if he had been crystal clear what he meant.  
  
Finally she said, "Because Miroku's my friend, and he needs help. That's just what people do."  
  
Inuyasha gave her a skeptical look, but kept his mouth closed.  
  
"Besides, it affects us too if this youkai, Naraku, killed Kikyo," Kagome added, hoping that would appease him.  
  
He shook his head. "Kikyo's been dead for a long time." His voice was a little rougher than it had been. It reminded Kagome of when she first turned him back on. "She chose to shut me down. What she did after that isn't my business either."  
  
For a long moment Kagome didn't say anything. Inuyasha wasn't meeting her eyes anymore.  
  
"I'm truly sorry you feel that way," she said softly into the uneasy quiet.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kagome's mother greeted them at the door, smiling brightly at her daughter and the youkai with her. Kagome's smile, on the other hand, looked false. Inuyasha thought it was because she didn't want to have to ask her mother to borrow the yen. He knew her well enough to be able to tell that she didn't like having to depend on others. She also didn't like having to inconvenience others over her own problems.  
  
She always seemed to put others first. Even when it was a stupid hanyou.  
  
Inuyasha watched as Kagome's mother pinched Shippo's cheek, suppressing a smile while the childlike youkai squirmed under the woman's cheerful attention. 'Karma's a bitch, ain't it brat?' he thought smugly while Shippo tried to pull away from the woman.  
  
"Ah, Momma?" Kagome said, rescuing Shippo. "Do you think we could talk? I have something really important I want to ask you."  
  
A softer expression replaced the woman's grin. "Of course, sweetheart. What do you need?" Then a wicked little gleam came into her dark eyes and she added, "I thought you were old enough to know what to do with a youkai like this, but if you think you need it explained. . ."  
  
Kagome's face turned red. Not a cute, pink blush, but real red, starting in her cheeks and spreading outward to cover her entire face and trail down her neck. "Mother--I--I don't need," she stammered. "I mean I'm not... Mother!"  
  
Kagome's mother laughed at her discomfort. "Of course not. Come one. Let's sit down in the kitchen. I'll make us some tea."  
  
Inuyasha followed behind them, still amazed a human could change color like that. He was fairly certain he'd never seen anyone else turn quite that shade. Kikyo never had, he was sure of that. She would never have let anyone know she was embarrassed or flustered by something they'd said. Taking a seat on the floor, he waited to see what Kagome would say when she recovered her voice.  
  
"So,"Kagome's mother said, sitting down across from the still flushed girl. "What do you want to talk about, honey?"  
  
Kagome fidgeted with her tea cup, twisting it around and staring at the liquid as though she would divine the future from it. After a long moment she slumped forward and set her tea aside. "You heard about the riot downtown I suppose," she began. "Well, it started outside where I work because there were some protesters there."  
  
Slowly Kagome unfolded the story of how the cafe had been vandalized prior to the riot, and how they had gone to see the damage and talk to her boss. She explained about the youkai attack, and Inuyasha felt something inside him swell as she made him sound like some sort of champion. She spent a little more time that absolutely necessary describing how he had disabled the rogue industrial youkai. She didn't even say that he wouldn't have done a damn thing if she hadn't told him to.  
  
Inuyasha bowed his head, but kept his ears trained on their conversation. "The thing is, Momma, I'm not going to be able to get any hours until the cafe is fixed up again, so I was wondering if maybe you could lend me a little money? I'll pay you back as soon as I can, of course, and I shouldn't need too much. Just a little to hold me over until they're through with the repairs."  
  
"Kagome," the other woman said gently, "you know I'll give you the money. Don't worry. It'll be alright."  
  
Inuyasha was starting to see where Kagome had come by her attitude. The idea of not helping her daughter had never crossed this woman's mind. Not even for an instant.  
  
"Thank you, Momma," Kagome cried happily. "I really hate to ask, you know? But I don't have that much money left in the bank, and I don't know how long it'll be before I can get back to work. Thank you so much."  
  
Inuyasha shook his head slightly in wonder.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Miroku woke up reluctantly. His neck was sore and one hand was almost numb. He stretched slowly, cracking his eyes open to see if there was any reason not to got straight back to sleep. Seeing none, he rolled over. And fell onto the floor.  
  
"Damn it anyway," he groan, levering himself up. "What time is it?" The hands on his watch said is was thirteen minutes after eleven in the morning. No reason to be up now. No, not at all.  
  
So why was he reclining on his floor, most painfully awake?  
  
There was something. One of those strange, disjointed thoughts that occur to one when they're still mostly unconscious. Miroku ground the heel of his palm against one gritty eye, trying to recall what was so important that it required him to be awake.  
  
What the hell was it? Something to do with that Naraku bastard, he was sure of it. Something about what a youkai might want if it was still bound by its original programming even after it had turned rogue. . .  
  
Miroku slapped his forehead hard. It was just so damn obvious.  
  
If a rogue youkai was still restricted by it's innate codes, it would want to find a way not to be.  
  
"Stupid, stupid, stupid," he told himself as he staggered to his feet and made his wobbly route toward the phone.  
  
What could make more sense? A youkai like Naraku, autonomous but still limited by his human makers, would want nothing more than to be free of those limitations. "Stupid," he said again as he called Kagome's number.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kikyo knocked on the door of the woman who had once been her sister, long ago when she was still flesh and blood and could claim relation to any living creature. Her inhuman hearing tracked the heavy steps of the now old woman as she made her way across her living room to answer the knocking. It took more time than it should have in Kikyo's mind. To some part of her, Kaede should still be a young girl.  
  
The door opened and the careworn face Kikyo had seen from farther off appeared in the gap. The Replica watched as Kaede's expression changed from curiosity to horror as what she was seeing became more apparent to her.  
  
"Hello, sister," Kikyo said calmly.  
  
"Kikyo. . .? But, you can not be. . ."  
  
A thin, humorless smile twisted her lips. "I'm not."  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Very sorry. Another short chapter, an not very interesting (which is why it took so long to write). Hopefully the next one will come out quicker.  
  
Until next time. 


	29. Forgotten Points

A/N: Alright. I learned my lesson. I will no longer tell my readers what's interesting and what isn't. Thanks for the all the reviews.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Kaede took an involuntary step back, making room for the doppelganger to slip past her. The old woman could only watch, dumbstruck, as the image of her dead sister glided easily across the room to settle on the couch. A heartless smile shaped Kikyo's mouth, unlike anything she had ever worn in life.  
  
"Sister, I. . ." She what? Kaede had no idea what she meant to say. She was facing someone who had been buried more than fifty years ago. For all her experience, Kaede had no idea how to deal with this.  
  
"You remember me then," Kikyo said, bowing her head slightly so she eyed her younger sister through her lashes.  
  
"How could I forget?" the old woman asked, sitting down heavily. She could see now how her sister's skin shone faintly, reflecting the light in a way human skin never would. She sat too still, not even breathing. Kaede's sister had always been composed, but the mask this thing wore was beyond stoic.  
  
Kaede realized with a slow, seeping horror what sat before her.  
  
The Replica's painted on smile softened a little, taking on a hint of the life it mimicked. "Good. I'm glad to hear I haven't been completely forgotten."  
  
"Why would you think you had been forgotten?"  
  
The smile failed entirely. "I have seen the girl."  
  
"The girl?" Kaede repeated blankly, trying to imagine what this false Kikyo could mean. She didn't like the answer that came to her. "Kagome?"  
  
"Is that her name?"  
  
"Kikyo," the old woman said, fighting down the vague rush of disgust that came with calling the Replica by her sister's name. "What do you want with her?"  
  
"What do I want? Nothing that isn't mine, dear sister," Kikyo replied, that ghostly cold smile once again coming to her lips. "Nothing that isn't mine by right."  
  
"You cannot have you're life back," Kaede said.  
  
"I never said I wanted it." The Replica's words offered no reassurance. "Now, tell me of this Kagome."  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kagome's mother made lunch, navigating her kitchen with an efficiency that left Inuyasha slightly in awe of her. As she worked, she and her daughter chatted easily. Yesterday might never have happened. Kagome smiled and giggled behind her hand, and her mother teased her gently and talked about her week. There was no tension. No scheme. No rogue youkai.  
  
But. . . did their kiss still exist, or was it cleared away as well? Just part of a bad memory?  
  
Humans didn't always act as they normally would when they were under pressure. They did things they normally wouldn't. The hanyou believed she had meant what she said when she told him she didn't think he was fake, but that didn't mean that she would let kiss her again if she had the opportunity to stop it. She hadn't given any indication if their relationship had changed or not.  
  
Inuyasha did not like the course his thoughts were taking. He pushed them aside, focusing instead on the two women's conversation.  
  
"Inuyasha," the older Higurashi said, seeming to feel his attention. "You've been quiet. Don't you have anything to say?"  
  
Caught off guard, the hanyou gave a feeble, "Not particularly."  
  
"Oh, come now," Kagome's mother pressed, undeterred. "You must have something to say. If you like, I could tell you embarrassing stories about Kagome when she was a little girl."  
  
Inuyasha blinked. Was that some sort of bribe?  
  
"What kind of stories?" he asked cautiously.  
  
"Mother!" Kagome protested, but the older woman just waved one hand in a placating motion.  
  
"Don't worry, dear," she soothed, "I won't tell him about you're little nudist phase or anything. Oops." The woman laughed as her daughter's face reddened again in the same, rather unflattering blush.  
  
"What do you mean, 'nudist phase?'"  
  
"Don't you dare tell him, Momma," Kagome whined.  
  
"Oh, but it was so cute," Kagome's mother said, still chuckling. Then she turned toward Inuyasha and whispered in an exaggeratedly conspiratorial tone, "When Kagome was a toddler, she decided she didn't want to wear her dresses. We couldn't keep her in clothes at all. There was this one instance at the supermarket--"  
  
"Actually, we should be going," the girl interrupted. "Busy day and all."  
  
"I didn't know we were busy?" Shippo commented, looking up as though he was trying to remember something, and the information he wanted was written on the ceiling.  
  
"Yeah, I want to hear the story," Inuyasha said, and was rewarded by seeing Kagome turn even darker. Her cheeks were almost more purple now than red.  
  
"Well, we are busy, so you can't hear the rest of the story," the girl insisted.  
  
"Don't worry," Kagome's mother said, giving Inuyasha a wink. "I'll tell you the rest next time you visit."  
  
"Yeah, sure, Momma," Kagome agreed, hurrying to get her things. "Sorry we couldn't stay for lunch!"  
  
"Alright, dear," she was still laughing. "You take care of yourself and-- oh! I just remembered. Wait here just a sec." She snapped her fingers and marched into the other room. Kagome shot Inuyasha a dangerous look behind her mother's back, then followed the older woman to the doorway.  
  
A moment later, the woman reappeared carrying a stack of neatly folded clothes. "You forgot these last time you stayed here."  
  
"Thank you, Momma," Kagome said quickly, collecting her laundry. "See you later."  
  
"Bye bye, dear," Kagome's mother said, and watched as her daughter scrambled out the door.  
  
Inuyasha shrugged, picked up Shippo and followed after his fleeing owner. On impulse, he turned and waved to Kagome's mother as he left. The woman beamed, waving back.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kagome didn't slow down until she was nearly a block away from her mother's house. Her face still felt like it was on fire, and she could only guess how red her cheeks must have been. Was there some book that they gave parents telling them how to embarrass their children? Was there a quota that they had to meet? Or did they all just get some sick thrill out of telling stories like that to people who. . .  
  
Why was she embarrassed in front of Inuyasha? It was Inuyasha who she didn't want hearing those stories. Shippo already knew most of them anyway.  
  
And if that fox youkai had any sense of self-preservation, he was not telling them to Inuyasha right now.  
  
Kagome stopped, letting her youkai catch up. Neither of them was speaking, which she took as a good sign. Some of the heat finally drained out of her face.  
  
"Hey, Kagome," Shippo said innocently, "why were you in such a hurry to leave?"  
  
The girl spun on her heel, about to yell at the small youkai for his curiosity when she felt something in the pocket of the pants she was carrying.  
  
'What?' she wondered, stopping to look at the clothing in her hands. 'What did I leave in my pocket?' It felt like a folded piece of paper.  
  
She was peripherally aware of Inuyasha and Shippo watching her as she pulled out a scrap of paper that had the fuzzy, abused look of a note that had gone through the washing machine without being noticed.  
  
"What's that, Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, peeking at the folded paper.  
  
"I don't know," the girl told him honestly. For the life of her, she couldn't remember what it might be.  
  
Unfolding the paper she found herself looking at three four-digit combinations. 4-3-4-7, 7-8-1-3, and 2-6-5-2 were written in a cramped, rather elderly hand, the ink bled out a little from its trip through the laundry.  
  
"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, interrupting her thoughts. "What is it?"  
  
"Oh." She shook her head, finally placing what she was looking at. "Are there any number locks around the apartment other than on the youkai storage unit?"  
  
"There wasn't even a lock on that when she turned me off," the hanyou replied impatiently. "Now are you going to tell me what you're looking at, or am I going to have to see for myself?"  
  
"I thought you were going to ask him about those days ago," Shippo complained from Inuyasha's shoulder.  
  
"Ask me about what? What are you talking about?"  
  
"Sorry, Inuyasha," Kagome said, her gaze drifting back to the fragile piece of paper in her grasp. "Kaede gave these combinations before we started cleaning out the apartment. She didn't say what they were to. I was hoping you might know."  
  
"Keh. Don't have a clue," he grumbled, then snatched the note out of her hands.  
  
"Careful!"  
  
"I'll be careful." He said, rolling his eyes. "I just want to see the damn thing."  
  
"Just don't rip it, alright?" Kagome told him.  
  
"Fine, fine. I'm no--" he cut of midsentence.  
  
"Inuyasha?"  
  
No response.  
  
*~*~*  
  
"Come on, come on. Pick up the phone," Miroku muttered as Kagome's line rung for the fifth time. "You have to be home."  
  
The speaker clicked, and Miroku breathed a sigh of relief. The response turned out to be premature, however, when Kagome's cheerful voice recited, "This is an answering machine. I'm sure you know what to do."  
  
Then that obnoxious beep. The young man made groaned. "Listen, Kagome. This is really important. Call me as soon as you get home. Okay?"  
  
Miroku sighed. Where the hell was she?  
  
'It's not like you can just expect the girl to sit by the phone waiting for you,' he told himself, shaking his head ruefully. With another sigh, he dialed Sango.  
  
After two rings, the activist's voice appeared over the speaker, followed an instant later by her face on the screen. Her eyes were puffy, her hair mussed and she wasn't wearing any make-up. Sango yawned into the back of her hand, blinking sleepily, then said, "What?"  
  
"Sango, I figured it out," Miroku said quickly, pushing away a brief pang of guilt for waking her. She looked fresh from bed. Not bad for first thing in the morning. . .  
  
"Figured what out?" She yawned again, looking like she was about to drift back to sleep. Through an effort of will he kept his mind from pursuing that train of thought. Unfortunately, there were more important things to think about than the pretty young woman in bed. Less pleasant things.  
  
"I think I know what a youkai would want."  
  
"What?!" Sango was awake now, all blurriness falling from her cinnamon brown eyes.  
  
"I'd rather tell you and Kagome at the same time, if you don't mind," he explained. "But I haven't been able to get a hold of her yet. Can you be over here in, say, two hours? That should give me time to track her down."  
  
Sango nodded quickly, her expression now stonily serious. "I'll see you then."  
  
Then her image vanished.  
  
*~*~*  
  
4-3-4-7. . . 7-8-1-3. . . 2-6-5-2. . . 4-3-4-7. . .  
  
The numbers spun through his head meaninglessly, each set chasing away the one before it.  
  
7-8-1-3. . . 2-6-5-2. . .  
  
There was something there.  
  
4-3-4-7. . .7-8-1-3. . .  
  
And there was something missing.  
  
2-6-5-2. . .  
  
That wasn't the whole series.  
  
4-3-4-7. . .  
  
There were more parts to it than this.  
  
7-8-1-3. . .  
  
The number span faster, and his circuits began to hum softly with the strain of keeping up.  
  
2-6-5-2. . .  
  
There was something missing.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Ah he. . . that wasn't how that chapter was supposed to go. Oh well, that's the way it goes now. Hopefully you guys liked it. If not, tell me why.  
  
Things should start picking up here soon, so I hope you all enjoyed the peace and quiet while it lasted.  
  
Until next time. 


	30. Meeting the Past

A/N: "Creepy numberness . . ." I'll have to remember that one. Actually, I'm feeling very evil after the last chapter. So many people wanting to know what was up with those combinations. One person even translated them into letters of the alphabet. I wish I had thought of that possibility, then I could have made words or acronyms or something. Alas, I am not quite that creative.  
  
Thanks for the reviews.  
  
Disclaimer: Still don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
2-6-5-2. . . 4-3-4-7. . . 7-8-1-3. . .  
  
The numbers whirled, chasing through the hanyou's brain at a dizzying rate. He couldn't catch them, or make sense of them.  
  
2-6-5-2. . .  
  
"Inuyasha?"  
  
He heard the voice as though from a great distance. The buzzing in his ears nearly drowned it out.  
  
4-3-4-7. . . 7-8-1-3. . .  
  
"Inuyasha, can you hear me?"  
  
The numbers danced, searching for a home in the complex codes that governed the hanyou's actions. The existing programs strained in an attempt to make room for the fragments of information, shifting so they could fit.  
  
2-6-5-2. . .  
  
He thought he might have groaned as his systems struggled to support the burden of these combinations.  
  
"Inu. . ."  
  
He couldn't understand what she was saying.  
  
4-3-4-7. . .  
  
What the hell was going on?  
  
7-8-1-3.  
  
2-6-5-2.  
  
4-3-4-7.  
  
One by one, the pieces fell into place, describing a tiny part of something much larger. It felt as though three small lights had gone off in the back of his head, then faded away. As quickly as it had begun, the spell was broken.  
  
Inuyasha blinked, shaking his head. It felt. . . not quite like pain, but like something. He couldn't name what. It felt as though his thoughts were suddenly very thin, or breakable.  
  
"Inuyasha," Kagome said, her voice insistent. "Can you hear me?"  
  
He winced, drawing away from the girl. "Keh. Of course I can hear you? Why wouldn't I?"  
  
"Well you didn't seem to a second ago," the girl huffed, her eyes dropping to the ground. "What happened?"  
  
"I. . ." He fought the urge the growl in frustration. He didn't even know why he was so upset. "I don't know."  
  
"Inuyasha, are you alright?" the girl asked, voice soft, resting her hand lightly on his arm.  
  
"Fine," he assured her, and tried to shrug her hand off casually. "We should probably go wherever it is you needed to be in such a hurry."  
  
He hadn't thought he had said anything too mean, but Kagome pulled back as though he had stung her. Then her expression hardened, her eyes saying clearly that this conversation was not over yet. Not by a long shot. A needle of guilt lodged in Inuyasha's chest at that look. He didn't know what he could do to make it leave, so he looked away.  
  
"Let's go home," the girl said at last. "Maybe Miroku's come up with something."  
  
Inuyasha nodded, wisely choosing not to point out that checking in with Miroku hardly seemed like a pressing matter. The girl turned away abruptly, leaving him with a view of her taut shoulders and stiff back, her hands clenching until all the blood was forced out of her knuckles, leaving them white.  
  
Shippo shifted restlessly in arms, distracting the hanyou from Kagome's ramrod straight spine as she walked ahead of him.  
  
"What is it, runt?" he asked gruffly, expecting him to demand being turned over to Kagome immediately.  
  
"Are you really okay?" Shippo asked, surprising him.  
  
"I said I was, didn't I?"  
  
"You lied," the childlike youkai responded flatly, brows drawing together in censure.  
  
"What! I did not!"  
  
"You lied," he repeated more firmly. "You're not okay."  
  
Inuyasha momentarily entertained the idea of dropping the twerp. He did have legs of his own, after all, even if they were rather short. It might be funny to watch him scramble to catch up with an angry Kagome.  
  
The thought of Kagome killed that idea before he really had the chance to enjoy it. She was angry with him, but he didn't see why. Sighing, he decided to let Shippo stay where he was, and started after the girl.  
  
After a couple of minutes, Shippo spoke again. "Why did you lie to Kagome?"  
  
"Why do you care?" Inuyasha shot back.  
  
"I don't care about 'you,'" the fox youkai was quick to clarify. "You upset her."  
  
"Why would she be upset over me?" he grumbled, more to himself than Shippo. She kept doing that, and it never made any more sense than the last time. She claimed to be worried about him, but he just couldn't see why she cared.  
  
"Why, why, why!" Shippo snapped, obviously irritated. "Is that all you know how to say? I don't know why she bothers with someone as stupid as you." The last was said in a childish tone of superiority that rattled the hanyou's already fragile nerves.  
  
"That's it," Inuyasha growled, opening his arms and letting the small youkai fall. "Walk yourself. I don't have to put up with this."  
  
Shippo's eyes narrowed and he stuck out his tongue, then scampered ahead on all fours. Inuyasha followed after at a more sedate pace, letting the other two move farther ahead of him.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kikyo opened the door to her apartment with a key she'd 'borrowed' from her sister. With a snort, she took in the changes the girl had inflicted upon her former home. All her furniture was gone, and most of it had yet to be replaced, leaving bare carpet and naked walls where there had once been tasteful furnishings. The couch had seen better days; it looked like the girl had picked it up second hand. Instead of the pictures which had once lent the room its personality, posters of meadows, and waterfalls, and kittens with cute messages written across them had been tacked up. Kikyo wrinkled her nose distastefully. 'So childish,' she thought, moving farther into the apartment.  
  
Despite the emptiness, a haphazard array of trinkets littered both the living and dining rooms. Bits and pieces cluttered the counter; an unwashed coffee mug, pens and post-it notes, some pulp romance waiting dog- eared on the table.  
  
Kikyo turned around slowly, feeling like a foreigner in her own house.  
  
The phone rang, distracting the Replica from her thoughts. After a couple more rings, the machine picked up.  
  
"This is an answering machine. I'm sure you know what to do."  
  
Kikyo smiled humorlessly. "How cute," she murmured.  
  
"Kagome?" a smooth, masculine voice asked hopefully. "Kagome, if you're there, answer the phone. Okay. . . Call me when you get in, okay? It's important. Sango's going to meet me over here. I think I know what Naraku wants. Bye."  
  
"Do you?" the Replica mused aloud. "Is this girl getting tangled up with Naraku as well? Poor Inuyasha. You never did have much luck, did you? Still, I suppose it explains some things."  
  
The front door creaked on its hinges, and a girl muttered something about having locked it. Kikyo turned to meet her replacement.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kagome froze. Standing in front of her was a woman a little older and a little taller than herself, with long sable hair pulled back into a sensible ponytail. Her eyes were half lost behind a fringe of bangs. She wore a starched white blouse, and knee length skirt, both crisp and pristine.  
  
But it was her face that stopped the girl, sending a chill up her spine. The woman's expression was serious to the point of being stern--she'd have permanent frown lines by the time she was thirty--but the face itself was almost identical to her own. She had the same nose, same chin, same mouth.  
  
"Who. . .?" Kagome asked, backing up a step. Shippo bumped into her leg, grumbled a moment, then went silent. The girl could feel his tiny, clawed hands clutching her calf.  
  
The woman bowed her head almost modestly, but something about her stance belied the motion. "I am what remains of Kikyo." she said, her tone cold and polite.  
  
"What remains?" The girl's blood turned cold at that declaration.  
  
"Does that trouble you?" Kikyo's eyes flashed through her bangs, a cruel gleam dancing in their otherwise lifeless shine. It was hard to see the little details that gave away that the woman was a machine in the dim interior of the apartment. The way the shadows textured her skin was wrong; the way she moved, too precise to be human. As Kagome took in the little flaws in the illusion, she couldn't help but think that the quality wasn't that great. Not when she compared to Inuyasha.  
  
Inuyasha. Where was Inuyasha? She'd thought he was right behind her. He was there a moment ago. Risking a glance over her shoulder, she saw the landing behind her was empty except for Shippo cowering at her foot. Where was the hanyou? She hoped he was alright. He hadn't been before, even though he said he was. Whatever happened when he read those numbers, it had left him shaken. He better be alright.  
  
If he wasn't, she'd kill him.  
  
"Looking for someone?" Kikyo asked, an odd humor coloring her tone. "Inuyasha's not there." She paused, eyeing Kagome openly. The girl's skin crawled under the Replica's scrutiny, invisible spiders creeping up her spine. "Tell me, did he tell you the same lies he told me? Did he try say he loved you? I do hope you didn't believe him."  
  
Kagome's throat tightened painfully. "Did you say. . . love?" she asked, unable to keep the words in.  
  
"He didn't, then," the other woman observed with a silent chuckle. "He was that true to me, at least."  
  
Something inside Kagome deflated, leaving the girl feeling strangely empty. He had loved Kikyo. Was that the secret he kept to himself? Was that why his eyes took on that particular, fluid appearance whenever anyone brought up the dead woman's name? Her knees turned watery, and she braced herself against the doorframe without thinking.  
  
He had loved her, and she had turned him off, and disconnected him, and thrown him in a closet.  
  
'I'm going to be sick,' Kagome thought, feeling the bottom drop out of her stomach. 'I'm so stupid. It's so obvious.' Shippo patted her leg in comfort, but she hardly noticed. She felt like a silly little girl.  
  
Inuyasha had loved Kikyo, and Kikyo had betrayed him. He had loved Kikyo, and Kikyo wore the same face as Kagome.  
  
He had kissed Kagome, though. He had said it was real. He'd said. . . What had he said exactly? He had said he didn't have to fake with her. But, he had not said he wasn't thinking of someone else.  
  
'I'm going to be sick.'  
  
*~*~*  
  
Inuyasha hurried when he realized he'd lost sight of Kagome. He shouldn't have done that. Normally he wouldn't have, but right now his brain was thoroughly scrambled. Things were only starting to straighten out. He cursed inwardly, trying to remember how long it had been since he could see the girl marching on ahead of him.  
  
'Damn these stupid. . .' His fingers tightened reflexively around the paper, nearly forgotten in his hand.  
  
He was running toward the apartment now, trying to close the gap he'd allowed the girl to create. Fast as he went, the dreary, pale façade of Kaede's tenement building appeared after a matter of seconds. His eyes locked on the open door, and Kagome's back framed in the aperture. Something was wrong. Why was she standing there like that, with Shippo huddled against her leg?  
  
"Kagome!" he called to her, but she didn't turn. She looked like she was about to fall down.  
  
He was there in a moment, his hand on her shoulder for support. "Kagome?" he asked softly, with no response.  
  
Inuyasha looked up, searching for the cause of the girl's distress, and his eyes landed on the one person he never thought he'd have to see again.  
  
"Kikyo," he said, his voice suddenly harsh.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: That's it for this chapter. Hope everyone enjoyed reading it.  
  
Until next time. . . why do I have the feeling I'm going to be yelled at? 


	31. Pieces

A/N: Ahem, I'll give you guys that it was an evil cliffhanger, but you only had to wait a week for the last update, which was the same length as all my other updates.  
  
Thanks for the reviews. See, I didn't leave you hanging too long, did I?  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
He saw Kikyo. Kikyo, who had been dead for more than fifty years. Hadn't she? And even if she hadn't, she'd be in her mid-seventies if she were still alive. He couldn't deny that he saw Kikyo, though. Her face hardened as it had been toward the end, her eyes watching him without the luster they'd once possessed. It was a sight that tore at his heart.  
  
But he didn't smell Kikyo. He smelled polymers, oil, silicon and the chemicals that went into making a youkai. He smelled electricity, and the faint, burning scent of friction.  
  
"Kikyo?" he repeated uncertainly.  
  
Kagome's shoulder tightened as she flinched, drawing Inuyasha's attention momentarily to the girl leaning against the doorframe. Her face was scrunched up, and her cheeks, which had been blushing not long ago, were now pale. He felt her begin to tremble.  
  
"What'd you do to her?" he demanded, turned back toward the stony image of Kikyo.  
  
"Inuyasha. . ." Kikyo said softly. "Is that what you care about?"  
  
"Kikyo, I--" he cut off when he met her hard gaze. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Looking," the Replica replied with a vague gesture which may have included Inuyasha and Kagome, or the room, or the whole goddamned world. "This was mine once, you know. But it's all changed now."  
  
"What's the matter with you, Kikyo?" the hanyou asked with a spark of impatience. "I don't understand you."  
  
She sighed, and for the first time since Inuyasha had seen her, the revenant actually was Kikyo for just a slit second. He knew that sigh so well, had heard it so many times when the world was too much for her to bear. Hearing it again hurt now, just as it always had. "You never did," she said. "You never did."  
  
"What's going on?"  
  
"Don't you know?" She asked, and the sad sort of half-life that had filled her faded away. Her dark, tarnished eyes met his briefly, before they began moving over him in long sweeps he could almost feel on his skin. The sensation made him uneasy. Finally, her study lingered on his hand.  
  
Inuyasha looked down. The numbers. He had forgotten them entirely.  
  
Kikyo cocked her head to one side, then smiled. It was not a smile the hanyou recognized, not the resigned contentment that had usually characterized her smiles. Instead, it was an emotionless expression, like the smile painted on the face of a porcelain doll. With slow, measured strides, Kikyo crossed the space between them and plucked the piece of paper out of his hand.  
  
"This," she murmured, no longer paying attention to Inuyasha at all. "Is he still after this?" The humorless smile flexed, growing wider for a moment, as Kikyo shook with nearly inaudible laughter. Shaking her head, she tossed the scrap of paper carelessly over her shoulder.  
  
"Until next time, Inuyasha, remember me." She said, and stepped around him. Inuyasha watch her go, more confused than he could ever remember being.  
  
'Remember me?' he wondered dazedly as he watched her leave. 'What the hell does she mean by that?'  
  
". . . Inuyasha. . ." Kagome whispered, just before her knees gave out. He barely caught her before she hit the floor.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kagome felt as though a hundred thousand pins had pricked each pore, drawing blood out of her body instead of sweat. Her ears were full of nonsense, nothing but white sound, like cotton and static. Her vision dissolved--it looked like the pixels of on a computer screen, but they were pulling apart. The edges of her sight turned red, then white, drawing in. She blinked, but nothing changed. All the strength deserted her legs, and the world suddenly canted at an odd angle at the same moment the ground fell away from her feet.  
  
Vaguely she was aware of a pair of strong hands stopping her own descent, then everything went black. . .  
  
The fist thing that came back to her was the feel of something blissfully cool pressed across her forehead and temples. Next was the sensation of someone smoothing her hair gently. Someone, probably the same person who owned the fingers that stroked her hair, was talking to her, but she couldn't piece out what the words meant.  
  
Finally consciousness returned to her. She opened her eyes, and found herself lying on the couch with Shippo's green eyes fixed on her from one side, and Inuyasha's amber on the other.  
  
"Are you alright, Kagome?" the little fox youkai questioned her earnestly.  
  
"What happened?" the girl asked, pressing her hand to her aching head and finding a cool washcloth.  
  
"You passed out," Inuyasha said. "You okay now?"  
  
"I think so," Kagome replied, carefully sitting up.  
  
He looked at her skeptically, disbelief clear in face. Then he nodded. "What happened before I got back?"  
  
Kagome shook her head. "Nothing."  
  
"Nothing?"  
  
"I got home, and the door was unlocked. She was inside," she explained. "That's it."  
  
"You shouldn't have gone inside if the door was unlocked," the hanyou scolded her, frowning. "You should know better than that. Anyone could be in there."  
  
'Anyone was in there,' the girl thought sullenly. Aloud, she said, "I don't need a lecture Inuyasha. I know it was stupid."  
  
"Why'd you do it if you knew it was stupid? How am I supposed to protect you if you make it so difficult?"  
  
"If you had been there like you should have been, it wouldn't be a problem!" Kagome snapped in a flash of frustration. She regretted the words almost as soon as they were out of her mouth.  
  
Inuyasha recoiled as though from a physical blow. He was a study in shocked guilt, eyes blinking dumbly, ears dropping. Then he grunted his usual "Keh," and turned away from her, folding his arms across his chest.  
  
"Inuyasha," she began, but he just shook her attempt off.  
  
"No, you're right," he said, voice bitter and rough. "I should have been there."  
  
"I didn't mean it," Kagome protested. "I just--" He wasn't listening to her though. She could see it in the stubborn slump of his shoulders, the tight profile of his clenched jaw.  
  
It was a long moment before the phone rang, shattering the tension. She stood up and walked over to the phone, trying to disguise the wobble in her legs.  
  
"Kagome! You're finally home. Where in all the gods' names have you been?" Miroku shouted as soon as she answered.  
  
"Hello to you too," Kagome said. "I was at my mom's house. Why?"  
  
"Kagome, how soon can you be here?" the young man asked, ignoring her question outright.  
  
"Pretty quick, I suppose," she told him. "Miroku, what's this about?"  
  
"I think I know what he wants."  
  
"Naraku?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Kagome bit her lip, casting a glance at Inuyasha's sulking form. He could get them their in only a few minutes, but she wasn't sure she wanted to ask him to. 'So moody,' she grumbled internally. This was important, though.  
  
"Sango's already here," Miroku said, interrupting her thoughts.  
  
The girl pushed down her concern for the hanyou. She'd tried to apologize. If he couldn't accept them, that was his problem. She nodded firmly.  
  
"We'll be there as quickly as we can."  
  
*~*~*  
  
Naraku's mind was spread throughout his network of youkai when he felt something disturb the chamber where his puppet body rested. Drawing his attention in from the youkai he controlled throughout Japan, and scanned the dark room for the cause of the distraction. What he found appeared to be a little girl, her skin and hair as devoid of pigment as an albino's, but her eyes were an ambiguous shade of dark.  
  
"Kanna," he acknowledged her. Unlike his other youkai, he could not upload information directly from Kanna via their link. While he was able to give her directions and data, even to him the childlike youkai's mind was a perfect blank.  
  
"Someone has been trying to access the Inutaiyoukai files," Kanna told him in a breathy deadpan. "The same person has been searching for information on you, and the Kazaana Corporation."  
  
"Who?" Naraku asked, smiling with a deep pride. Kanna herself was nearly useless, until he had found a purpose for her.  
  
"Iijima Miroku," she answered him in the same inflectionless tones. She didn't move any more than was necessary to speak. She didn't even blink.  
  
"Iijima Miroku?" he asked, trying to remember if he had ever encountered a person by either of those names before. Nothing came to him. "Bring up his records."  
  
Wordlessly, Kanna obliged, holding her mirror up for him to see. The glassy surface wavered and Naraku's reflection was replaced by names, dates, and numbers. There was an address, a phone number, personal idenification, schools, driver's license, small business license. Naraku's skimmed it, watching for some clue as to why this person would be snooping around sensitive subjects. Adoption records and change of name notification.  
  
"Stop," the youkai commanded, and immediately the screens stopped scrolling. "Open these," he commanded, and pointed to each of the files with one clawed finger.  
  
"Yes," she replied. "Houshi Miroku, adopted by his godfather, Iijima Mushin at six years of age. Father: deceased. Mother: whereabouts unknown, presumed deceased. Age:. . ."  
  
"That's enough," Naraku cut her off. Rubbing his chin in an unconscious habit, he mused, "Houshi. . . I thought I had done with them. Hm. Perhaps Kagura should pay him a visit. That line always did have a weakness for pretty women." He sneered at the thought that the last Houshi might find Kagura attractive, though even he could not deny her aesthetic appeal. "I shall have to think about this."  
  
"Yes, Naraku," Kanna intoned, lowering her mirror and allowing the screen to return to its reflective quiescent state. She turned away then, and returned to her haunts.  
  
Kagura was certainly capable of handling Houshi Miroku, but he had other tasks for her. Perhaps there was some other youkai more suited to his needs. Though her appearance could be used to lure the man out, assuming he shared his family's vice, her powers were far more than would be needed for this task, and may well draw public attention he was not yet ready for. Kagura tended to be somewhat overzealous in using her powers, for all that she despised serving Naraku.  
  
He wondered if she thought of him when she killed.  
  
"Naraku," a chilly feminine voice interrupted his thoughts. Looking up, he found Kikyo watching him with a triumphant expression on her normally stoic face. "I remember what you wanted now. I remember."  
  
"Remembering will do you no good," he said, meeting her eyes. "There is nothing you can do about it."  
  
Kikyo maintained her undefeated air. "You think so? But how much do you think I remember?"  
  
"It doesn't matter. Nothing you can do can interfere with my plans. I would not allow it. Now leave me, woman, you still have a job to do." The last was a command, both spoken and delivered along the connection he had created between them.  
  
"Oh yes, and I mean to do it too," she told him, tilting her head at an angle of mock-humility, "Onigumo."  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Alright, I worked hard to get you guys an update this weekend, because my 21st birthday is this Tuesday, and I'm not sure how much time I'll have during the week, since I'll have work, birthday stuff, and a couple of friends hell-bent on getting me plastered. I hope you all enjoyed this one.  
  
Until next time. 


	32. Stress

A/N: I intended to get this chapter out a little quicker than this. Sorry, but work, birthday, hiking, and the evil blue screen of death all conspired against me to make this take longer.  
  
Much thanks go to all those who reviewed. I always love hearing from you.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. If I ever said I did, I was lying.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Miroku watched the lovely Sango pace back and forth across his tiny living room as they waited for Kagome and Inuyasha to arrive. The anti-youkai activist's jeans clung to her hips in the most intriguing ways as she measured out the distance from the stairs to the couch in long, graceful strides. They were such nice hips, too. Under normal circumstances he would have been happy to watch her pace like that for hours, the faded denim pulling taut against her nicely shaped curves. Now, however, watching her was the only thing keeping him from fidgeting himself.  
  
"She said she'd be here as soon as she could, right?" the girl asked nervously, turning to face him. Miroku forced his attention up to his guest's face. It wasn't bad either. Her eyes were pretty, the color of cinnamon. Her mouth was an inviting shape. It was a toss up which he liked better, her face or her ass.  
  
"Yeah," Miroku answered, a little too late to sound natural. "It took me long enough to get a hold of her, too. I had to call her four times." He bowed his head with mock solemnity. "To think in this day and age there are still people who don't carry portable phones."  
  
The girl gave him a funny look, then resumed her pacing. Miroku's gaze dropped to her swaying hips again, distracting himself.  
  
A moment later, the bell over the front door jingled. Miroku was on his feet almost before he consciously recognized the sound. Sango had ceased her restless movement, and was now staring at the stairwell with him.  
  
"They're here?" she said, hope coloring the question.  
  
"I don't think they could be. It's a fairly good distance to Kagome's apartment, and she doesn't have a car either."  
  
The bell sounded again, this time clanking flatly as the door was flung open with a great amount of force.  
  
"Inuyasha," Miroku identified the cause, feeling a little pity for his door. The hanyou wasn't in a good mood. Catching himself in the thought he wondered if that even made sense.  
  
"Hello?" Kagome's voice carried up to them. "We're here."  
  
"Come on up!" Miroku shouted back. From the corner of his eye he saw some of the tension leave Sango's body. She hadn't been particularly happy about having to wait to hear Miroku's epiphany about Naraku's intent, but the young man didn't want to have to repeat himself.  
  
Kagome appeared from the stairwell carrying Shippo, followed by Inuyasha a step or two behind. The hanyou's gaze was pointedly fixed on the ground in front of his feet, and his ears were flicking indecisively. Miroku couldn't help but note that the silence between them seemed anything but comfortable.  
  
Sango cleared her throat delicately. "Can we get started now?"  
  
"Of course," he said, shaking off his curiosity about the hanyou's relationship with Kagome. It had seemed so much better last night. 'Hell, was it just yesterday. . .'  
  
Kagome sat down on the couch with Shippo settling easily in her lap. Sango took the place next to her, leaving a shoddy old laz-e-boy for Miroku. Inuyasha leaned against the wall without paying attention to any of them.  
  
"Alright," the young man ventured, unsure of the best to start this conversation. "I was wracking my brain trying to come up with what Naraku might want, and what he might be programmed for, and it struck me--what if what he wants is a way around his programming?" Miroku's eyes traveled from one guest to another as he tried to gage a reaction. "Am I crazy?"  
  
"No," Sango assured him thoughtfully. "But couldn't you have said that over the phone? I mean, it isn't much to go on."  
  
"I kind of hoped that the rest of you would have something to add to it," the young man explained. In reality, it didn't seem like much to drag them all the way over for.  
  
"Is there some way that a youkai could get around its programming? Other than rewriting it?" Kagome asked softly, staring at the top of Shippo's head.  
  
"Not that I know of." Sango leaned on the couch's padded armrest. Miroku shook his head in agreement.  
  
"How do youkai become rogue?" Inuyasha asked, stretching listlessly. "Obviously there's some way."  
  
"He has a point," Shippo said. "There is a way."  
  
"But it's not complete." The hanyou frowned as he spoke, folding his arms across his chest.  
  
"What makes you say that?" the fox youkai piped.  
  
"Sesshomaru didn't kill Kagome. I don't think he could," Inuyasha explained. "At least, I can't think of any other reason why that bastard would pull a blow."  
  
"Sesshomaru?" Miroku pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling the beginning of a headache coming on. "Who's Sesshomaru?"  
  
"That's not the point," Inuyasha growled, finally raising his eyes to meet the young man's. There was an irritable light in those amber eyes.  
  
"But, how do you know him well enough to make predictions about him like that?" Kagome looked up as well.  
  
"I just do."  
  
"You were attacked 'again' yesterday?" Sango asked, her tone begging clarification.  
  
"He was attacked, not me," the other girl said defensively. "By another youkai with white hair, but his ears were pointed, and he had stripes on his cheeks."  
  
"Another Inutaiyoukai?" Miroku asked.  
  
"Yes," Inuyasha gritted out. "I said I know the guy, so lets drop it. I thought you wanted to talk about Naraku?"  
  
"True," the young man ceded. "But we still don't have any idea how youkai turn rouge."  
  
The hanyou sighed and pulled something out of the sleeve of his shirt. "Could this do it?"  
  
It turned out to be a piece of paper, which Miroku took gingerly. There were three series of numbers written on it.  
  
"What is this?"  
  
"I don't know, but Kikyo said Naraku was still after it."  
  
Miroku stared at Inuyasha in shock. Kikyo said? The encroaching headache gave a dull throb behind his eyes. "It sounds like you two had an eventful day."  
  
*~*~*  
  
Inuyasha listened with half an ear as Kagome recounted the events of the last eighteen hours or so. Though his internal clock agreed with the time frame, it still seemed like it must have taken longer. How could so much take place in so little time? Sesshomaru reappears, followed by Kikyo? It was simply too much to cram into less than a day. Not to mention that the havoc those strange numbers had wrought on his codes.  
  
Small wonder he was tired.  
  
Well, maybe not tired. Tired wasn't really an emotion, was it? It was a physical sensation: the body's way of telling to brain to slow down and take a rest. This was more like a weight he was dragging around.  
  
He recalled Kagome saying something about people 'getting things off their chests.' That sounded rather like how he felt now, except he was pretty sure that talking about it wouldn't make it go away. Hell, he wasn't even sure he knew what to say. With things like this, his vocabulary always seemed to be lacking.  
  
Besides, Kagome probably wouldn't want to talk to him right now, anyway. Maybe before, but she seemed so mad at him now. . .  
  
"When we got home, Kikyo was already there. I guess that's about it." Kagome finished. "She made some strange comment about 'him' being after those numbers, then left. Apparently, Inuyasha thinks that the him she was referring to was Naraku."  
  
"Makes sense," Miroku said thoughtfully, nodding. "Have you seen anything like these, Sango?"  
  
The activist shook her head negative. "If Dad had anything like that, I never saw it. If it's a code or something, why would a security officer have it?"  
  
"Why would a secretary have it?" Inuyasha responded, more harshly than he'd meant to. "She did. That's all that really matters."  
  
Four sets of eyes swiveled to look at him. Even Shippo was staring. The dog hanyou felt a spike of irritation. "What?"  
  
"Is something wrong, Inuyasha?" Sango asked, and a look he was sure meant trouble settled on Miroku's features. Inuyasha didn't think he wanted to know what was going on behind that understanding expression, but he had the sinking suspicion he was going to find out anyway.  
  
"Inuyasha," the young man said, confirming his fears. "Might I have a word with you in private?"  
  
"What about?" He did not trust that look. That knowing, almost sympathetic look on Miroku's face set off alarms in the hanyou's mind.  
  
"Just come on," Miroku replied as he stood, smoothing the rumples from his shirt--the same one he had worn the day before, and so wrinkled nothing short of ironing would straighten it.  
  
After a moment, Inuyasha relented and followed the shop owner downstairs and into his workroom. Miroku leaned against the workbench, and fixed an expectant look on the hanyou.  
  
"Well," Inuyasha huffed, "what the hell do you want?"  
  
Miroku sighed. "I suppose any attempt at tact would simply be lost on you. Inuyasha, it's obvious that something happened between you and Kagome."  
  
"It is?" the hanyou responded weakly. Kagome had been acting strangely since she saw Kikyo. Since before then, actually. But yesterday had been a chaotic, and today hadn't show any signs of being better. Perhaps the girl was just stressed. . .  
  
"So you did sleep with her," Miroku said, nodding sagely.  
  
"What the--?" Inuyasha shouted, shocked out of his thoughts. "Where the fuck did you get that idea?"  
  
"Well, you were certainly getting along well when you left yesterday, and today the two of you are hardly acknowledging one another's existence. It's the logical conclusion to draw." The shop owner clapped his hands in a business like manner. "So why don't you tell me what happened so we can figure out where you went wrong?"  
  
"Nothing went wrong!" he growled back. "It's not like that, you pervert. I didn't sleep with her."  
  
Unfazed, Miroku patted Inuyasha's shoulder companionably. "There's no need to be shy. Kagome was a virgin, so it's not surprising that the first time was a little awkward for her."  
  
The hanyou shrugged of his hand and glared. "How would you know if she's a virgin?" he asked, letting a warning not slip into his voice.  
  
Miroku sighed. "Fine. Be that way. I was just trying to help so we could get back to work without having you preoccupied with your sex-life."  
  
"I told you, we didn't do it."  
  
"Then maybe that's the problem."  
  
Inuyasha consciously unclenched his fist in an effort to keep from punching the man right in the nose.  
  
"Believe me," he said instead, "sex is not the problem. I'm made to be able to deal with that sort of thing. I have volumes of data on it. I don't need help from a lech like you."  
  
"Do you?" Miroku leaned forward curiously. "Volumes, you say? In that case, do you know if that old ear-biting trick actually works? Not that I'm really into deflowering virgins mind you, but I have the feeling--"  
  
"Will you shut up about that already?!" Inuyasha interrupted, pushing the young man away from him. "I thought we were here to talk about Naraku."  
  
"Quite right," Miroku agreed. "I've wasted enough time on you already."  
  
"You've wasted time on me--" Inuyasha hissed from between clenched teeth, but the object of his wrath was already retreating.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Sorry again. This chapter was a real beast to write. And so much freaking dialogue! Do you guys think there's too much talking in this story? Unfortunately, it's sort of necessary at the moment.  
  
Hopefully the next chapter will be out quicker, and have more action in it.  
  
Until next time. 


	33. Repetition

A/N: I come bearing Chapter 33. I hope you all like it. Thanks to everyone who reviewed. As always, you are much appreciated.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. I am, however, formulating an ingenious plan to kidnap him.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Kagura toyed with her fan absently as she watched Inuyasha and his mistress exit the little shop. She saw no reason for her master's sudden obsession with this one. Indeed, she took it as a sign that underneath it all, Naraku was far less stable than he seemed. A Companion youkai shouldn't present a difficulty for them. True, this one had shown that he wasn't a standard Companion, but he still wasn't designed exclusively for combat, or to infiltrate other systems, or any of the risks Kagura knew to look for.  
  
Yet Naraku insisted upon watching him closely, sending agents whose services would be better suited elsewhere to tracking his movements, as though he posed a serious threat. So he stopped a dilapidated old industrial youkai. Big deal.  
  
"He isn't even that handsome," the military youkai observed quietly, boredom seeping into her voice. "Too young."  
  
The only problem Kagura saw with Inuyasha was that, for some unknown reason, he hadn't been taken care of already. Kikyo had met with him earlier today, yet here he was, still functional and autonomous. That woman was going to prove to be more trouble than she was worth.  
  
She snapped her fan closed at the thought of the untrustworthy Replica. Why Naraku chose to use such a tool was beyond her comprehension. With any luck, she would turn on him and end this whole foolish mess.  
  
But for now, Kagura had a job to do.  
  
She hopped down from her perch on a neighboring fire escape and sauntered up to the shop's front window. 'Youkai Repair,' was written in neatly painted black characters over the door, with the address below.  
  
Kagura ran the address, scanning for the building's lease so she could find out whom Inuyasha and the girl had been meeting. After a brief search, she was supplied with a name: Iijima Miroku.  
  
The youkai's lips turned into an arrogant smile. Naraku would want to know of this.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kagome 'trudged' back toward her home. She had never really trudged before, but now that word seemed the most apt. She felt as though she were dragging her body through clinging mud with every step. It didn't make any sense, but since seeing Kikyo, it had been that way.  
  
Inuyasha had belonged to Kikyo once, long before he was Kagome's. He had loved her. That fact turned into a heavy knot in Kagome's chest. Inuyasha had loved her, and she had shut him down and locked him away.  
  
He had mistaken her for Kikyo when she first turned him back on. She'd thought it was only because his optics had been switched off and his sensors misadjusted, but now she wasn't so sure. What if there was more to the mistake?  
  
What if he had been thinking of Kikyo when he kissed her?  
  
She didn't want to believe it, but the thought kept gnawing at her, worrying at the edges of her thoughts, like a dog intent on working the last scraps of meat off a bone. She didn't want to think about it, didn't want to even consider that it might be possible. . . yet the doubt was there, nagging at her.  
  
Inuyasha walked behind her. He wasn't letting her get too far ahead of him; she was fairly sure it would be quite a while before she managed to get away from him again. But his attention was somewhere beyond her, past the street with it pedestrians and lampposts, to watch ghosts only his darkened amber eyes could see.  
  
Kagome bit her lip, wondering if she ought to interrupt his thoughts. They had to talk. She knew that much, at least. She wouldn't be able to think of anything else until they did. She just wasn't sure she was brave enough to start.  
  
She took a deep breath, then let is out slowly.  
  
"Inuyasha?" Her voice didn't waver, of which she was infinitely proud.  
  
"Huh?" He looked up, eyes focusing on her. "What?"  
  
"Inuyasha, I--" she paused, trying to work out precisely what she was trying to say. Finally she settled on, "Was that Kikyo?"  
  
"It couldn't be Kikyo," he told her. His voice was gravelly, but then, it always was. It was the way his gaze dropped to the sidewalk, and the way he let his bangs hide his face from her that betrayed him. "That was just a machine."  
  
"You know," she said, looking forward again so she didn't have to see his face, "you're not a very good liar."  
  
"Kikyo died."  
  
Kagome suppressed a sigh. This wasn't going anywhere. What could she do to get him to open up to her? Too bad Inuyasha hadn't come with an instruction manual.  
  
"She said. . ." Kagome tried again, "Kikyo told me that you said you loved her."  
  
"Did she say that?" he asked, then under his breath he added, "She didn't believe it."  
  
'So he did,' the girl confirmed. 'He did love her.' She swallowed hard against the lump that formed in her throat and consciously stopped herself from biting her lip.  
  
'So what if he loved her?' her thoughts continued. 'Just because he loved some other girl once doesn't mean he can't. . . He can't what? Love me, too? Of course he doesn't. He's only known me a couple of weeks.'  
  
Her reverie came to an abrupt focus, 'It doesn't mean that he wasn't kissing 'me' when we kissed.'  
  
She couldn't help but feel a sour pang of dread at that. It was what scared her. The idea that when he had kissed her, he had been thinking of Kikyo.  
  
The far away look in his eyes when he had caught her at fantasizing came back to her in a flash. Had he been thinking of her then? Was that what his look meant? He had said his feelings were real. But what if they had been for someone else?  
  
She gave up on fighting, and started chewing nervously on her lower lip. 'Even if he does feel. . . whatever it is he could feel for me, he still loved Kikyo.'  
  
Kikyo's words came back to her: "He was that true to me, at least."  
  
"Oh gods," she whispered to herself. Nothing was better.  
  
*~*~*  
  
They hadn't accomplished much with Miroku and Sango. Aside from establishing that it made sense for Naraku to want to be free to act outside his established parameters, and that Kikyo believed he wanted some numbers, they hadn't come up with a single useful idea between them. They didn't even know if the two things were related. Perhaps they were, but it was only one of more possibilities than he could even guess at.  
  
Inuyasha shook his head. There was too much they didn't know. For the most part, he didn't care that they weren't sure what Naraku was after, or what he was capable of. All he wanted to know where the bastard was, so he could kill him.  
  
Kikyo. . . Naraku was responsible for killing her. He was certain of that, at least. He had killed her, because for some reason, she had those fucking numbers. The other mysterious deaths at Inutaiyoukai were probably his fault as well.  
  
Naraku would die for what he did to Kikyo--or be destroyed, since youkai could not die. Whatever remained of him would be unsalvageable. There would be no repairs, no downloading old personality and memory units into a new shell. There would be nothing left.  
  
Inuyasha noticed his fingers had curled into trembling fists, and consciously willed them to relax. He could feel the first tingle of energy gathering in his claws. Blinking, he raised his hand and eyed it dubiously. He could see the faint light of the energy pathways opening up beneath his skin.  
  
"Inuyasha? Are you okay?" Kagome asked over her shoulder. She looked worn, her face pale, her dark eyes vague.  
  
"Fine," he responded tersely, shaking the prickly sensation out of his hand.  
  
The girl's gaze searched his face briefly, and for a moment he thought she was going to press for more, but she just looked away. He blinked, a little surprised. Not that he wanted to explain himself to her, but he had expected her to show more interest. He'd thought she would. . . and when she didn't he felt rather small. That odd shrinking feeling again, only it was different this time. This time he felt more insignificant.  
  
The anger bled out of him at that feeling, leaving him oddly hollow. He hadn't even realized he'd been angry until the emotion faded. It was easiest to be angry. Crossing his arms, he followed the girl the rest of the way home in an uncomfortable silence.  
  
Kaede was waiting for them when they got there.  
  
The old woman looked like she'd just had the day from hell. The lines around her eyes and mouth were more deeply written than they had been, so her whole face seemed crumpled and sunk in on its self. She was frowning when they reached her.  
  
"Kagome, are you alright?" the old woman asked, taking the girl's arm and leading her toward her own apartment.  
  
"Yeah," Kagome told her uncertainly. "Why? What's up?"  
  
"You saw her too, didn't you?" Inuyasha guessed.  
  
Kaede nodded. "Yes. I saw her. She visited me before she went to you."  
  
"What happened?" Kagome asked, gently freeing herself from the old woman's grip.  
  
"There is something you ought to know about my elder sister," Kaede explained. "Come with me. I'll tell you everything I know."  
  
Inuyasha's ears perked at the promise of an explanation, and followed without complaint as the old landlady brought them to her dining room. He waited as patiently as he could while she put a pot of water on the stove for tea, settled her mass in a chair across the little Formica table from Kagome. He could almost hear her joints creaking as she moved.  
  
Fighting down a growl, he prompted, "Well? We haven't got all day."  
  
"Patience is a virtue, Inuyasha," Kaede scolded him.  
  
"Just get on with it."  
  
"Inuyasha," Kagome warned him wearily, then turned back to the old woman. "Go on."  
  
"More than fifty-six years ago, my sister got a job as an assistant at the Inutaiyoukai Corporation."  
  
"I know where she worked," the hanyou grumbled irritably, only to have Kagome hush him.  
  
Kaede gave a resigned sigh. "I was well aware you knew that, Inuyasha. What you don't know is how she got the job. At that time, she was engaged to the CEO's son, Amori Ichiro."  
  
A snide remark died on Inuyasha's tongue. Engaged? To Taisho's son?  
  
"Amori Ichiro," Kagome repeated. "I've never heard Taisho referred to with a family name."  
  
"It wasn't his," Kaede explained. "Amori was his mother's name, I believe." Kaede paused, looking from the girl, to the still stunned hanyou and back again. "Perhaps this will be easier if I show you."  
  
"Show us what?" Inuyasha asked. To his own ears his voice sounded distant, and lacking its usual bite.  
  
Kaede levered herself back up, and hobbled into the living room. She seemed much older today than she had the last time they'd seen her, more fragile. Inuyasha tracked her slow course to one of the end tables, where she picked up a framed photograph.  
  
Curiosity plain in her expression, Kagome followed. Inuyasha moved after them with more reluctance. He wasn't sure he wanted to see what the picture was of. A sinking feeling grew in the pit of his stomach, and a strange sense that he knew what he was about to see overtook him.  
  
Kagome plucked the photo out of Kaede's hand, her eyes falling on something the hanyou couldn't see.  
  
Whatever it was caused the girl to give a strangled gasp, and her eyes darted back and forth from the picture to Inuyasha. She was staring at him when she handed over the picture.  
  
"Inuyasha," she said weakly, "it's you."  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Yay! That one was so much easier than the last one that I can hardly believe it. I hope everyone's still enjoying. Look! An answer! Well, sort of. . .  
  
Later. 


	34. Echoes

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, not even a little bit.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Kikyo stood there with a smile on her face which Inuyasha had rarely seen. It was a pure, happy expression, and one that tore a tiny hole in his heart. Her eyes were squinting against an achingly bright, blue-skied day, and she had just a hint of sunburn across the bridge of her nose.  
  
A young man was behind her with an arm wrapped possessively around her waist, his chin resting on her shoulder as he smirked at the camera's eye. He was handsome, in a rather rough looking way. His deeply tanned skin, glossy black hair and dusky eyes were very much at odds with Inuyasha's own pale coloration, but the structure of the face was nearly twin to his own, down to the cocky expression.  
  
'I wonder if he sighed often. . .' The hanyou's treacherous mind asked as he stared dumbfounded at the picture.  
  
"How is that even possible?" Kagome asked, lending voice to the confusion Inuyasha felt. "I mean, that's Taisho's son?"  
  
Kaede nodded in confirmation. "And my sister's fiancé."  
  
"But. . . how?" Inuyasha asked inadequately.  
  
"I can't say. As I said before, his name was Amori Ichiro, and he was Taisho's son."  
  
"Was?" Kagome laid a hand on Inuyasha's arm as she spoke, squeezing it gently. "What happened to him?"  
  
"He died," the old woman answered heavily. "He was very young when it happened. He kayaked, alone more often than not. He tried a river he never should have been on at that time of year, and never by himself. It was more than a week before his body surfaced. Kikyo was the one who had to identify him."  
  
"I'm so sorry," Kagome said, sympathy thick in her soft tone. "That's truly awful."  
  
Kaede waved away the girl's out of date condolences, though Inuyasha noticed that she rubbed surreptitiously at her eye. "It was a long time ago, and I never knew him well. He was just my sister's fiancé, and the boy who called me 'squirt.' But I do believe that Kikyo was very much in love with him. She cried herself sick when she had to see the body. I understand it wasn't pretty. . ."  
  
"Why do I look like him?" Inuyasha growled, feeling that little hole rip slightly wider. "What the hell was I? Some kind of fucking replacement?"  
  
"I really don't know, Inuyasha. I wish I could tell you." Kaede accepted the picture back from Kagome and carried it with her as she returned to the table. "I can only tell you what I know. I never met Ichiro's father, I can't tell you what he was thinking."  
  
Kagome's grip tightened once more, Inuyasha felt it, but he hardly realized it was happening to him. A sharp, painful knot was forming in his throat, and something that 'hurt' but yet didn't was spreading out from that point. He didn't resist as she led him to a chair, where he fell as much as sat.  
  
For a time, no one spoke. The hanyou's thoughts were spinning incoherently. Faster than he could identify them, they were gone. Over and over, there was only one thing he could pick out of the chaos in his mind: Kikyo had been engaged to a human him. Someone who had worn the same face cast in human colors, someone who would have grown old and died with her. Someone who she could believe when he said he loved here.  
  
She had agreed to marry him.  
  
"Does this mean Inuyasha is a Replica?" Kagome asked finally, breaking the brittle silence.  
  
"No," Kaede replied quickly. "Of that I can be certain. He isn't Ichiro. Not like that thing is a copy of my sister. Not to mention that even if Taisho hadn't been one of the driving forces behind the Replica Act, Ichiro's body wasn't in good enough condition to try."  
  
"That thing. . ." Kagome repeated. "That thing was a Replica of Kikyo. But who made it? And why?"  
  
"I don't know that either. I wasn't aware such a youkai was in existence until today." The old woman's haggard expression became regretful. "Believe me, if I had known, I would have called the police. That Kikyo isn't my sister."  
  
Kagome was chewing her lip again, Inuyasha noted distractedly. She was thinking about something. She always did that when she had something on her mind. "Kaede," she said, her voice rising a little at the end, as though she were asking a question. "I think I'm going to have to do a little research on Replicas. I don't know all that much about them."  
  
The girl shook her head. "Was there anything else?"  
  
Kaede nodded, but didn't continue. The hanyou barely caught the pointed look the old woman sent his direction. In his mind he was still seeing Kikyo smiling with that light he'd never seen while that familiar stranger held her.  
  
"Inuyasha, are you alright?"  
  
Inuyasha tried to shake off the picture. It didn't matter if Kikyo had been engaged, or who he happened to look like. It didn't matter if she had truly looked happy then. 'Yeah,' he thought acerbically. 'Tell yourself that enough and you might start to believe it. . .'  
  
"Fine," he responded, forcing more conviction into his voice than he felt. Both women's eyes fixed on him. "What? I thought there was more. Get on with it."  
  
"There is more, but not much. I was only ten at the time," Kaede explained, adding a wry curl to the end. "Most people aren't inclined to explain to much to a ten year-old. However, I do know that only a couple of months after Ichiro died, Kikyo got Inuyasha from Inutaiyoukai.  
  
"Officially, she was evaluating a hanyou model prototype, but she said it was just Taisho salving his own conscience. That was a few days before she actually got you," the old woman added thoughtfully. Inuyasha grunted an acknowledgement and waited to see what else she'd say. "They both felt a great amount of guilt over the boy's death. Both of them had lectured him about how irresponsible it was to ever kayak alone. He never listened to either of them."  
  
"Sounds like he had it coming then," Inuyasha said gruffly.  
  
"In a way, yes. It was a risk he chose to take," Kaede said resignedly. "I see that now, but for them, it was a matter of what they might have done to prevent it."  
  
Kagome bowed her head. "When people die young, it tends to be. You were saying?"  
  
"Unfortunately, there's not that much more to say," Kaede told them. "Save that it was my belief until now that the reason Kikyo shut Inuyasha down and put him in storage was because of Ichiro. . . Now I'm not so sure."  
  
"Why not?" Inuyasha asked. It made sense. She had wanted the human, and the hanyou hadn't measured up. It was only natural.  
  
"The Replica seemed confused by some of the last events of Kikyo's life. I've heard that is not uncommon. Short-term memory doesn't transfer at all, and the most recent memories of the departed tend to be unreliable. That's why Replica's testimonies were made inadmissible in court. . ."  
  
Kagome's brow furrowed. "If it's illegal to make a Replica, what's the point of disqualifying their statements in court?"  
  
"That was before the Replica act," Kaede amended. "In any event, it seemed to me that my sister's last memories are jumbled in this thing's head, but she seemed jealous of Kagome."  
  
"Jealous?" Inuyasha and Kagome said at once. The girl continued, "Why would she be jealous of me?"  
  
"Because," Kaede told her grimly, "you have what she used to."  
  
*~*~*  
  
The bedroom was dark. Kagome lay in bed, watching shadows chase each other across the ceiling and listening to the hall clock tick on and on, counting the endless seconds as the night wore on. Rolling over on her side, she tried to ease the pressure of a spring digging into the middle of her back, but that put her neck at a weird angle. The glowing green number on the digital alarm clock proclaimed it 2:13am. 'Damn.'  
  
"That's it, I give up," the girl said aloud, throwing her legs over the side of the bed and levering herself into a sitting position. Why was it that when she wanted sleep the most, it eluded her so effectively?  
  
Oh yes, Kikyo. That was why.  
  
And every time she closed her eyes, she was assailed by the image of a dark haired, dark eyed young man and girl who was obviously head over heels in love with him. The picture of Ichiro and Kikyo haunted her; a picture that easily morphed into Inuyasha and herself within her mind's eye. She almost wanted to cry thinking about it, or scream, or shout, "It's not fair." Life wasn't fair, though. She was old enough to have figured that one out a long time ago.  
  
Kagome pushed herself onto her feet with a groan. Her body was stiff with fatigue, and a dull, scratchy throb had taken up residence in her temples. She swayed a second before finding her balance, then began to shuffle her way to the kitchen for a glass of chocolate milk.  
  
The apartment was almost eerily quiet. Shippo was off, and Inuyasha had presumably suspended his functions until morning. There was the normal sounds that anyone who lived in a city became accustomed to: the sirens, the car alarms, and the occasional discordant thud of a stereo with the bass at maximum, but even these were subdued and seemingly far away.  
  
The light that made it through the curtains served more than adequately as a nightlight until she opened the door to the refrigerator. The illumination from the tiny bulb hit her in the face when she opened the door and made her squint after hours of laying in the dark, and she was quick to grab the carton of milk and bottle of chocolate syrup before slamming it shut again. After rummaging through her kitchen in the dark for a glass and a spoon, she sat on the counter to drink her late night snack.  
  
From her seat, she could make out the dark shape of Inuyasha sitting on the living room floor, with his back against the wall and one knee drawn up to his chest. 'I wonder if he's dreaming,' the girl thought wistfully. 'He was going to tell me about a nightmare before this all started. . .'  
  
She watched his unnaturally still form as she sipped her milk. In the nearly colorless ambient glow, his hair was a swath of bluish white, and his clothing a dark blur. He looked lonely, sitting by himself on the floor.  
  
The headlights of a passing car came through the window and caught sparks of amber off his open eyes. Kagome jumped, spilling milk across her hand and lap.  
  
"Nice job," the hanyou said without bite. "What are you doing up?"  
  
Kagome grimaced, and gave in to turning on a lamp so she could clean up her chocolate milk mess. "I couldn't sleep. What about you? I thought you'd be out by now."  
  
"Got a lot on my mind, I guess," Inuyasha said, stand up slowly and moving to join her in the kitchen.  
  
Kagome paused in her search for a dishtowel and glanced over her shoulder at her hanyou. His face lacked its normal life. She could almost imagine dark half circles written under his eyes, but whatever the material of his unique skin, it didn't discolor as human skin would. She doubted he would ever bruise, or burn. He would never have the bronze tan of the man in the picture.  
  
"Care to talk about it?" She prompted softly; afraid she'd scare him off.  
  
"You want to hear?" he said, surprised.  
  
"Idiot," she told him, offering what she hoped was an encouraging smile. "Of course I want to hear. We're friends, right?"  
  
Inuyasha blinked, his golden yellow eyes searching her face openly. Whatever he wanted to see, apparently he found it because after long moment he spoke again. "I suppose I'm just confused, you know?"  
  
Kagome nodded her acceptance of his answer. "Yeah," she responded, "I know."  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Another chapter out. I'm finally feeling like I'm back in the groove of this thing. Hope everyone enjoyed reading.  
  
Until next time. 


	35. Lady in Red

A/N: Here I am, and with chapter 35. Thanks go to all of my reviewers. Not only do you provide a review junkie with her fix, you make it much easier to write the new chapters. Sorry this one took so long to write. I was sick last week.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
"I bet you're not used to being confused," she said, glancing over her shoulder as she washed her chocolate milk-sticky hands in kitchen sink, carefully measuring the hanyou's reaction to her words.  
  
Inuyasha shrugged, leaning against the counter top behind him. "So why couldn't you sleep?"  
  
"I. . ." Kagome began, catching herself when she found she didn't know what she wanted to say. What was she supposed to tell him? She was afraid that he'd been thinking of Kikyo when he'd kissed her, and the thought made her restless and sick to her stomach? That didn't sound like the best course of action to her. "I suppose I have a bit on my mind, too." She answered finally. "My world has become sort of chaotic in the last couple of days."  
  
Inuyasha nodded his agreement. "I keep expecting something else to jump out at us."  
  
"I know what you mean." Kagome finished washing her hands and turned back toward Inuyasha. "It's like the phone's going to ring at any minute, or the doors going to fly open and who even knows what'll be on the other side."  
  
The Companion gave a humorless chuckle of understanding, nodding. Neither of them spoke after that, but the silence was more comfortable than any between them in days. The girl couldn't help but marvel at the way some of the tension seemed to ease out of Inuyasha's expression as he stood there. Even his eyes. 'How in the world did they make those?' she wondered idly. And how did they manage to make him so expressive?  
  
After a long moment, Kagome interrupted the quiet that had settled over them. "I think I'll be heading back to bed now," she told him, yawning behind her hand. "Who knows what might pop up tomorrow?"  
  
"Goodnight," he wished her, taking the girl off guard. "And thanks. . . for still wanting to talk to me. I was just a little shocked to find out there was some other bastard out there with the same face as me."  
  
"You're welcome," Kagome responded automatically before the full weight of his words hit her. The way he said that, like she hadn't experienced the exact same thing. 'Idiot!' her brain shouted at him, and a flush of anger welled up in her, only to dissolve almost immediately. 'If he doesn't realize that, then he must not see the resemblance.'  
  
'Idiot,' she thought again more fondly.  
  
"Goodnight, Inuyasha," she said, a smile splitting her face. "I'll see you in the morning."  
  
*~*~*  
  
Rin was finally asleep. She snuggled into Sesshomaru's side, oblivious to the fact that they huddled behind a dumpster in an alley of one of Tokyo's outlying suburbs. The girl's gentle breathing was deep and regular, her heart beat a steady thump to the youkai's sensitive ears. Sesshomaru listened to the steady sounds of her life rather than the more crass noise of the city, and wondered what he had done when he'd allowed her to follow him away from her father's compound.  
  
He hadn't considered the situation as thoroughly as he ought to have. That fact had become readily apparent that morning when the girl had asked him with innocent trust plain on her face what she was going to have for breakfast.  
  
In the end she had provided the answer herself, buying a peach at a small grocery store. Luckily, she'd had the foresight to bring what cash she had with her. But while her father may have been rich, her own funds were much more limited. The yen she had was not likely to last more than another two or three days.  
  
Which meant Sesshomaru had to come up with a plan by then. But how the hell was a rogue youkai supposed to provide for a human?  
  
Which led to another question that plagued him: was he truly rogue? He didn't know. It didn't seem so, but he had abandoned his lawful owner. Ryoko's command hadn't held him at all in the end. Yet, he had protected this girl. Was it his programming which had led him to do it? Or could it be something else?  
  
Too many questions, and too few answers. His makers had been a strange lot; it could be that it was indeed his programming being obtuse, or it might have something to do with these emotions. While Taisho had been the most innovative of his development team, there had been others involved as well. A whole staff of them, and many of them as eccentric as he himself. Their names were filed away in Sesshomaru's memories now, most of them dead. Those who weren't were ancient by human standards. Higara Ichiyo: deceased. Konae Jiro: deceased. Saito Matsuo: institutionalized for senile dementia. Ito Toutousai: active.  
  
Ito was the only one still alive and sane--presumably. Even in his youth, he hadn't been altogether rational. He was the only one who might have the answers Sesshomaru wanted.  
  
Sesshomaru blinked, the only outward sign of his surprise. Ito Toutousai 'would' know the answers to his questions. Or at the very least, he might. Was there anything to prevent Sesshomaru from asking the old man in person?  
  
Rin chose that moment to stir in her sleep, pressing her thin body closer to him as though seeking warmth. Sesshomaru removed his jacket and covered her with it. He was lucky it wasn't winter, but it still drove home the fact that he had to find a way to care for her. Sleeping in the streets was unacceptable.  
  
He would have to discover a means of income, and a place to stay. That presented another problem. Just what was he qualified to do, assuming he could even find someone willing to pay him for the skills he had? For the past few decades, he had done very little other than entertain the fantasies of bored, rich hedonists. That wasn't a particularly high employment qualification, unless he felt like becoming a prostitute, which was out of the question. The very thought was repugnant.  
  
He would find Ito Toutousai tomorrow, he decided. Perhaps once he understood what was going on better, he would have an idea what to do next.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Miroku woke up to the sun lancing through his bedroom window, striking him fully in the eyes. Groaning, the young man turned over, trying to deny the daylight invading his dark room. Normally he wasn't the kind of person who had to drag himself out of bed in the morning, but after two nights spent searching for any information on Inutaiyoukai and Kazaana, he found himself reluctant to leave the comfortable spot his body had made in the mattress.  
  
After a few moments of wishing the clock wasn't insidiously flashing 7:39am, Miroku resigned himself to the fact that it was indeed time for him to get up. Going through his morning steps in a blurry, familiar haze, brushing his teeth, showering, and tying back his hair in its customary tail. Eying himself critically in the mirror, he mentally prepared himself for another long, boring day of fruitless internet searches. 'I've got a pile of repairs and orders to get to, also,' he thought, remembering the growing pile of work downstairs. 'Money and all. . .'  
  
At least, it would give him something to do while Myouga accessed all the files he couldn't reach.  
  
After he had gone through his morning habits, Miroku grabbed his first Dr Pepper fix of the day and headed downstairs to his workroom. Nothing had been touched here in two days. Tools and parts lay out where he abandoned them, and a small service youkai was left half-dissected on the workbench, its wires and motors spilling out of its casing. Glancing over the forms next to it, Miroku remembered that he'd been replacing one of the little thing's servos when Inuyasha, Kagome and Shippo had arrived with a very drugged anti-youkai activist. After that, finishing the repairs had sort of slipped Miroku's mind.  
  
Picking up a screwdriver, he began pulling out more of the youkai's mechanical guts, trying to find the defective servo. It was a tricky part, which often went bad in this model after a few years. He'd had to replace more than one of them in the past.  
  
The youkai itself was of good quality, made to look like a little girl of perhaps seven or so. Though not as realistic as some on the market, she would still fool the eye at a glance if it weren't for her pale, violet tinted hair and huge lavender eyes. It was actually a bit disturbing, now that he thought about it. He was absentmindedly tampering with a--a what? Person? Being? Entity?--with a thing that looked almost alive, and which could think and reason independently. Was she self-aware? There was no real knowing. He could not be sure.  
  
Miroku forced himself to focus more on what he was doing. It seemed wrong not to be a little respectful. Inuyasha appeared in his mind, berating him for not paying attention while he had his hands were 'in' someone else. 'Would you like if your surgeon's mind was wandering? Keep your fucking mind on what you're doing, dumbass.'  
  
"I need more sleep," Miroku muttered, pulling the defective motor out of the service youkai. "I'm hearing an ornery hanyou in my head. . . And I'm talking to myself."  
  
The bell over the front door rang, snapping the young man's head up. Had he flipped the open sign this morning? He hadn't meant to, but he might have out of habit. Setting the child-like youkai aside, he wiped his hands off and pocketed his screwdriver before he made his way into the front show room, where he put one of his best smiles for whomever might be waiting for him.  
  
Miroku's smile relaxed when he reached the door and caught a glimpse of the woman standing on the other side of the counter. The woman smiled back, the dazzling expression revealing perfectly even white teeth. His eyes traveled across her graceful curves in one sweep, taking in long, shapely legs, nice hips in a clingy, sheer skirt, a narrow waste and pleasantly rounded breasts, neither too big, nor too small. Her height and her auburn hair both marked her a Westerner. A pair of red tinted sunglasses obscured her eyes.  
  
"May I help you, miss?" He asked solicitously.  
  
That brilliant smile tilted to a flirtatious angle. "I think so," the woman said in a teasingly vague accent. He couldn't quite place it. "You're Iijima Miroku, aren't you?"  
  
"Yes, I am indeed he. How may I be of service?"  
  
"I'm looking for a specialty youkai. I heard you can find those for people sometimes," she told him, drawing abstract patterns on the glass counter top with her red painted nails. "I was thinking of a companion. Something good for keeping a girl company while she travels."  
  
"Do you travel a lot, miss?" Miroku said, suddenly feeling a great deal more awake and optimistic. "I'm sure I can find something for you, but you know, sometimes it's nicest to have human friends abroad. Do you spend much time in Tokyo?"  
  
Her nails stopped tracing, then tapped at the glazed surface in a way which seemed designed to draw attention to her finely wrought hands. "This is my first time in Japan," she admitted as though it embarrassed her. "It's an amazing country."  
  
"Well, perhaps I could show you around," he offered smoothly, reaching out to take her hand almost without thinking about it. She threaded her fingers loosely through his, her smile growing wider.  
  
"I think I'd like that," she replied, bowing her head demurely, but peaking at him over the rims of her rose colored glasses. The eyes that regarded him were saffron orange. Miroku's blood ran cold at the opacity of those inhumanly colored eyes.  
  
Suddenly the woman's grip turned implacable, squeezing his own hand until the small bones seemed to creak in protest. Still smiling, she dug her painted nails into his skin.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Again, I apologize for the wait.  
  
Until next time. 


	36. Delayed Reactions

A/N: I am so sorry I took so long to update. I just haven't been able to write more than a paragraph or two at a time before I freeze up. I apologize again. Anyway, better late than never, right? In any event, there seemed to be some confusion about the last chapter. The youkai attacking Miroku is not Kagura. She's just a random youkai. Okay, now that we've cleared that up, on with the chapter.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
It should have been obvious that she was a youkai. The evidence was clearly written in the sheen of her complexion, like old silk, in the way she moved and in the contrived symmetry of her face. . . Oh, yes. It was obvious enough now, looking down into her vivid orange eyes over the brass rims of her glasses. A smile that might have been attractive if not for his opinion of the owner twisted the corners of her mouth.  
  
The pieces fell together in an instant. Miroku grimaced as she flexed her grip, digging her painted nails a little deeper into the back of his hand.  
  
"Naraku sent you," he said, more calmly than he felt. The curse of Kazaana had caught up with him at last. Oddly, mixed with the twinges of fear and anxiety was a thread of relief. At least the waiting was over.  
  
"You're quick," the youkai drawled mockingly. "Quicker than your father was. Unfortunately, you still weren't quick enough to make a difference."  
  
"Are you going to kill me, or make fun of my paternal line?" Miroku asked, stalling for time as his free hand inched toward the only thing he could think of that might serve as a weapon. His fingers wrapped around the handle of the screwdriver in his pocket. "If I might have a say on the subject, I think I'd prefer the latter."  
  
The youkai's lips shaped a pouty frown. "Right now is not the time to be clever."  
  
"Quite the contrary," Miroku disagreed evenly. "I think that right now is an opportune time to be clever." As he finished speaking, he stabbed up in an awkward underhand motion straight at one orange eye and the colored lens it hid behind. The screwdriver's head hit with the sound of breaking glass.  
  
She shot back reflexively, covering her damaged right eye. Miroku pulled away, jerking free of her tight hold at the cost of a little skin. Risking a quick glance at the injured appendage, he saw four neat crescent-shaped punctures marks, each with an angry red welt trailing behind it from where he had pulled free. The wounds were shallow, but they stung worse than cat scratches, and his whole hand ached as the result of the youkai's punishing grip.  
  
He tried to rub a little life back into it as he backed away from her, mind working rapidly to think of his next move.  
  
With sharp hiss, the youkai revealed her eye. The sight framed by her broken sunglasses was not pretty. A thick, murky fluid slid down her right cheek in a sick parody of tears, seeping out of a red-edged hole in the eye itself. Though she blinked the other eye repeatedly, this lid only managed to twitched downward, sending small spasms through the connected muscles.  
  
"You'll pay for that," she promised him darkly, curling her fingers into a claw.  
  
Miroku swallowed the lump rising in his throat and backed away step by slow step. Not that he didn't have a high opinion of himself, but the young man doubted that he would be a match for any youkai Naraku would send after him alone and unarmed. His improvised weapon had fallen to the ground when he and the youkai had separated.  
  
If he could get to his workroom, there were any number of things that would work: mallets, utility blades, and soldering torches. Hell, he even had a crowbar in there somewhere. With that, he might stand a chance. At least he'd have the advantage of reach.  
  
The youkai's shoulders sloped forward as she stalked after him down the hall, cocking her head slightly to one side. Her pace was even as she followed him, feet barely making a whisper as they hit the hardwood floor. Her good eye took on a threatening gleam.  
  
The crowbar might be his best bet if he'd left it out, and he could find it, but he would be wasting time he didn't have if he had to look for it. There was a five-kilo sledgehammer on the wall opposite the door. It would serve, if he could get to it.  
  
"I think you have something going through that quick little brain of yours," the youkai said, momentarily interrupting Miroku's thoughts. She smirked slightly when he jumped a little at her words.  
  
While a torch did sound satisfying, it wouldn't really work. It was too unwieldy, too limited, and he didn't think he'd be allowed time to use the striker to get it started. The crowbar or the hammer were much better choices.  
  
"It won't work."  
  
Miroku sighed, not answering. She had allowed him to get this far; it wasn't too much more to his workroom. Perhaps she would be stupid enough to let him get there.  
  
Was he willing to take that chance?  
  
Was he willing to chance running?  
  
"You don't get it, do you?" she asked, a condescending note coming into her tone.  
  
If the youkai had any intelligence at all, she wouldn't let him go where he wanted, but if she thought he was retreating blindly, she might let him get a little farther. If he ran, there was no telling how fast she could catch up to him, but there was also no telling how long she would be happy with simply playing cat and mouse.  
  
"And here I thought you were smart."  
  
The young man caught the smug expression creeping into her features, the same way it colored her voice.  
  
"I've already won."  
  
Miroku turned and ran, making a split second decision. He heard her feet behind him, thumping softly against the floor, and expected to feel her nails in his shoulder next. His hand burned in reminder of her sharp grasp, but he was able to crash through the half-open door without being caught.  
  
He was halfway across the room before a sudden weight from behind nearly drove him to the floor. Staggering forward, he hit the wall hard enough to make lights momentarily dance before his eyes. Beside him was his largest sledgehammer. He grabbed with both hands and swung it around with all the forced he could muster.  
  
Pure luck caused the hammerhead to collide with the youkai's neck, earning him a nauseating crack and nearly severing the thing's head from her shoulders. She fell to the ground like a marionette with cut strings.  
  
Miroku watched as the youkai shuddered and tried to pull herself back up, her head lolling back at an unnatural angle, but her main neural pathway must have been destroyed. She couldn't get her limbs to function properly. Taking a deep breath, Miroku lifted the sledgehammer again and brought down on the thing's head. A last shiver when through the youkai, then it stilled.  
  
Slumping back against the wall, Miroku unexpectedly realized how drained he was. He let the hammer fall to the ground and scratched the little crescent wounds that the youkai had left him.  
  
A wave of dizziness started in the pit of his belly and rushed to his head, causing the room to weave unsteadily. The floor seemed to wobble beneath his feet. The young man blinked and shook his head in an effort to focus his eyes, but the attempt proved futile as his vision swam. The wounds began to throb suddenly, grabbing his attention. He felt the blood moving through the small vessels in his hand with every beat of his heart.  
  
"Oh hell," Miroku breathed as his knees gave way.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Sango stroked the familiar soft fur of the little feline youkai, letting the tips of her fingers trace her former playmate's shape from the tip of her glossy black nose to the end of her twin striped tails. Kirara did not respond to the touch as she could have once; she didn't lift her head to nuzzle the young woman's palm, nor purr reassuringly. Sango would have liked some reassurance.  
  
"What am I doing here again?" the activist wondered aloud, pulling away and folding her hands neatly in her lap as she studied the deactivated mechanical kitten. Kirara remained peacefully dormant under her scrutiny.  
  
The past couple of days tumbled haphazardly through her mind. She had known before that youkai were dangerous, and knew that they were capable of slipping free of their human controls, but it hadn't occurred to her that she would run across one with a vendetta. She hadn't thought that she might meet a girl with a hanyou and a youkai who both behaved as though they were half rogue or more themselves, but also seemed utterly devoted to her.  
  
Despite his quirks, Sango would have to be blind to miss the fact that Inuyasha was well and truly Kagome's. Was there something special about that girl that changed her youkai? Or was it something that happened to all youkai, but Kagome didn't mistake it for a malfunction and try to fix it?  
  
'Well, here goes nothing,' she thought, and reached for the switch hidden in one of Kirara's ears. She found it easily, moving it into the on position.  
  
One minute passed, then another. Sango frowned, bowing her head. "Nothing happened. . ."  
  
Feeling more than a little silly, the activist put Kirara back in her storage container and closed the lid tightly. Her hands lingered on box an instant before she picked herself up and walked downstairs to make breakfast.  
  
*~*~*  
  
"I told you, you should have sent me," Kagura said, fanning herself languidly. "I wouldn't have had any problem taking care of the latest Houshi."  
  
"Did I ask for your opinion, Kagura?" Naraku asked, shooting her a stony glare. His voice betrayed his short temper. She snapped her fan shut and shrank back toward the wall behind her, knowing better than to push the scowl that puckered his brow and bracketed the edges of his mouth. "Then keep it to yourself."  
  
A long moment crept by before he turned away, and each second she was pinned by Naraku's crimson gaze crawled down Kagura's spine like a chain of ants. Finally Naraku broke eye contact. In a low, self-satisfied tone, he said, "We don't know that Ashieyu did not succeed in her mission yet. Just because she was destroyed, doesn't mean that she failed me." He gave her an oily smile. "Remember that, Kagura."  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Alright, that's it for today. I'm going to find myself a nice hole and try to get some sleep.  
  
Until next time. 


	37. Searching

A/N: Well, it took a while longer than I hoped, but I'm back with another chapter. Sorry, but I've been a bit busy lately, and my computer is being a bitch. But I have been working on this, and Hunter's Moon, though work is going very slow. Also I'll probably also start work on a Miroku-centric fic I've been planning out soon, and I have a couple of original fics going too.  
  
Thanks go to everyone who reviewed. I'm staggered by how many I'm getting a chapter, now. It really helps keep me inspired.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.  
  
Synthetic Emotions  
  
Kagome was her normal morning self, stumbling from her bedroom to the coffee pot in a daze, then accelerating through her morning chores as the caffeine hit her blood and got her moving. By 8:30am she was darting about the small apartment searching for her brush, then the mate to one of her socks that seemed to have been lost somewhere between the laundry and its drawer, her tooth brush hanging out of the corner of her mouth as she searched end tables and behind her sparse furniture.  
  
Inuyasha, on the other hand, sat with his back against the wall, making a show of being indifferent to Kagome's quest for her lost sock and misplaced hairbrush. He kept one ear trained on the girl though, while the other twitched from time to time in frustration. Finally he huffed a long- suffering sigh, and told her to check the medicine cabinet for her brush and just find another goddamned pair of socks.  
  
"I never put it in the medicine cabinet," Kagome protested as she marched into the bathroom to check anyway.  
  
No matter how he looked at it, they were acting as though the past couple of days hadn't happened at all. The little fox youkai set his chin on one tiny, balled fist and pondered. Perhaps it was because he wasn't designed with the capacity to understand adult behavioral patterns, but Shippo couldn't help but find the whole situation weird.  
  
Of course, Inuyasha was usually weird. But that didn't explain Kagome.  
  
Then again, the girl had been ignoring him more than normal lately. That was all the hanyou's fault. If they hadn't found him and turned him back on, none of this would have happened, Shippo was sure of it.  
  
But. . . That wouldn't have made a difference with Miroku, Shippo supposed. He just wouldn't have shared his secret with the rest of them. And there still would have been a riot. And it wouldn't have changed things for Sango either, except she wouldn't have met the rest of them. And there was no way to guess what might have happened with Eiji.  
  
'Alright,' Shippo admitted to himself. 'Perhaps it isn't all his fault. But he's still weird.'  
  
"Hey!" he called as Kagome stomped back from finding her brush in the medicine cabinet. Hopping down from his seat on the dining room table and scurrying up the girl's leg and into her arms. "Why are you in such a rush?"  
  
She looked down at Shippo, wide-eyed and obviously trying to decipher his question. Then she blinked, freeing one of her hands to smack herself firmly on the forehead. "I'm sorry, Shippo. I forgot to tell you. I was going to go down to the library today and see what I could dig up on Taisho."  
  
"But aren't Miroku and Myouga doing that?"  
  
She offered him a sheepish, apologetic smile. "Yeah, they are. But I feel a little useless sitting around waiting for them."  
  
"Are you ready to go?" Inuyasha asked, cutting off Shippo before he could reply.  
  
"Just a second," the girl answered him, a little irritation winning its way into her tone. "I still haven't found my sock."  
  
"For the love of. . ." he muttered, rolling his eyes. "Just get another sock, or wear sandals or something!"  
  
"Alright, alright." Kagome threw one hand in defeat, balancing the forgotten Shippo on her hip with the other. "I'll wear another pair of shoes."  
  
"Is the runt coming, too?"  
  
"If he wants to," she told him, carrying the fox youkai as she slid on a pair of low-heeled sandals.  
  
"Well, does he want to, then?"  
  
"How should I know?"  
  
"Ask him!"  
  
"You could ask him yourself!"  
  
Yes, things were perfectly normal, and there was absolutely no way Shippo could explain it. He was tempted to cover his ears as they continued squabbling. How could two people argue so much about such stupid things?  
  
"I'll go with you," Shippo piped, hoping to end the argument before it progressed. Neither the girl nor the hanyou paid him any attention.  
  
"Will you stop being so childish and just ask him?"  
  
"Wait, how am I the one being childish here?"  
  
"Hey, I said I'd go," Shippo tried, a little louder.  
  
"Well I'm not being childish, so it has to be you."  
  
"Process of elimination is not a means of deciding who's childish!"  
  
"Well, you're the one shouting!"  
  
"You're shouting, too!"  
  
"Hey!" Shippo yelled over the pair. "Let's go already. Damn it."  
  
Both combatants blinked mutely, surprise evident on their faces. Inuyasha recovered first, folding his arms crossly and muttering something too low to be understood. Kagome's eyes narrowed and she sent the hanyou a smoldering glare.  
  
"Are we going, you guys?" Shippo put in before they could start fighting again.  
  
"Sure, lets go," Inuyasha said sullenly and turned away from Kagome and the childlike youkai on her hip. Shippo stuck out his tongue at the hanyou's retreating back. After a moment's hesitation, Kagome followed after him.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Kagome eyed the microfiche viewfinder dubiously. At one point in High School, she had been forced to sit through a half-hour long presentation on how to use one of these to look up old newspaper clippings. She recalled clearly thinking, 'Why would I ever have to use one of those? I can look up a new article on the internet.' Sadly, that was the only thing she remembered clearly from that lecture. Fifty years, it seemed, was more than enough to make any number of articles inaccessible by computer. Intersystem shuffling, software updates and mismanagement had long ago closed the electronic paths to that data.  
  
Which left Kagome with this semi-archaic machine.  
  
"Well?" Inuyasha asked, sprawling across a near by tabletop.  
  
"I--I think I can handle this," Kagome told him, with a tentative laugh. "How complex can it be?"  
  
The hanyou drew his face into a skeptical frown, his brow quirked at a disbelieving angle, eyes half lidded, and the corners of his mouth tight. "That's not exactly a vote of confidence."  
  
"It's the best you're going to get," Kagome shot back, forcing down a spark of anger. "Unless you've got a better idea."  
  
"We could just wait to see what that pervert digs up?" Inuyasha suggested. Idle, his claws began tapping out a grating rhythm on the tabletop. The librarian on duty shot a withering look his way that made Kagome squirm uneasily. Inuyasha showed no sign he noticed the glare at all.  
  
"I want to see if I can find anything on my own." The girl planted her hands on her hips, bracing herself for a repeat of the argument they'd been having since that morning. After last night, she'd assumed he'd want to know more--about Amori Ichiro, if nothing else--but if anything he was more reluctant than before.  
  
Through trial and error, Kagome managed to figure out how to work the viewfinder. It really wasn't difficult, once she got the hang of it. Before long she had the first of the promising looking articles displayed on the astringently glowing screen. It was a quick write up on Amori Ichiro's death from the Tokyo News.  
  
"The body of Amori Ichiro surfaced today after extensive searching," the writer began in terse, journalistic style. "Amori, the 20 year-old son and heir of Inutaiyoukai's founder and CEO, has been missing since he failed to return from a kayaking trip May 5th. His disappearance was reported by his fiancée."  
  
'Yeah, I know this bit.' Kagome skimmed over the brief article, scanning the text for any information that might prove valuable later on. "Sources say Taisho has been devastated by his son's untimely death. However, in his only interview, the youkai kingpin claimed that despite this tragedy, Inutaiyoukai's newest projects would not be delayed."  
  
'He only gave one interview? Who with? And when?' The girl asked herself while silently eying the stack of microfiches she had collected. 'Is it in there somewhere?'  
  
"Hey, Kagome," Inuyasha interrupted her thoughts. "Are you almost done?"  
  
Kagome squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth. "Not yet. If you don't like it, then help out."  
  
"Keh," came the hanyou's predictable response.  
  
*~*~*  
  
The sign on Miroku's door read, "Closed." Sango was fairly certain it didn't apply to her, but still, seeing it made her pause a minute to take in the absurdity of her situation. What would happen if her colleagues heard that she had visited a youkai repair shop to see if the owner would take a look at her childhood playmate? Assuming they believed it, none of them would ever take her seriously again.  
  
She glanced down at the box she was carrying, Kirara curled inconspicuously inside. Perhaps the other activists had good cause to snub her. After everything that had happened in the past couple of days, she wasn't sure she'd be able to put the same enthusiasm into her speeches and protests that she used to.  
  
'Maybe I should just put Kirara back in storage,' she thought idly, staring blankly at the door in front of her. As things stood, she could still justify that the only reason she was associating with these people--Miroku, Kagome and Inuyasha, hell, even Shippo--was because of the connection they might have to her rogue youkai who killed her father. But if she revived Kirara. . .  
  
If she revived Kirara, then she'd be giving up on her activism. Sango couldn't rationalize that kind of inconsistency in her life. She couldn't have a youkai and at the same time argue that they were a threat to humans.  
  
Unbidden, a scene of herself facing a horde of frenzied reporters sprang to mind. Pay no attention to the youkai behind the curtain.  
  
"Okay, this is getting silly," the young woman said aloud. "Just pick one and stick to it." If that meant she would have to reassess the direction her life took after they'd dealt with Naraku, then so be it. Steeling her resolve, she decided, and pushed into Miroku's shop.  
  
The front showroom was empty, save for the regular merchandise arranged on the shelves. Everything seemed to be more or less as it was the last time she'd seen it. A shiver raced up her spine. Something didn't feel right.  
  
"Hello?" She called, wondering why Miroku hadn't emerged yet. Normally he was quick to appear when the bell over the door announced someone.  
  
No answer. Sango set Kirara down on the countertop. Was he out? The door hadn't been locked. "Is anyone here?"  
  
Faintly, she heard something shift in the back, and what sounded like a stifled groan. Following the sound, she discovered Miroku on the floor of his workroom with the mangled remains of a youkai. The young man was leaning against the wall, his face stoic as he struggled to get to his feet, but his cheeks were flushed and sweat stood out on his forehead. His breathing was coming in an uneven pant.  
  
Ignoring the youkai, Sango threw herself to her knees beside him, feeling his face for his temperature. He was running a low fever. "What happened?" she demanded as she pulled back to look at him more closely.  
  
One dark eye cracked open, followed by the other. "Hello, Sango," he said, the thready sound of his voice ruining his attempt to sound casual.  
  
*~*~*  
  
A/N: Wow! I finally got it written. Sorry again for taking so long. My computer keeps freezing up, so writing has been difficult. I'll try to be quicker with the next chapter, but I make no promises.  
  
Until next time. 


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